In the late '80s, death metal's detractors couldn't imagine that it would last another 14 or 15 years -- it was too harsh, too limited, too predictable, too unmusical. Even fans of the style acknowledged that death metal was something of an inside joke; regardless, death metal proved to be surprisingly durable, and it continued to enjoy a small but enthusiastic cult following in the early 2000s -- not only in the United States, but all over Western Europe and even in parts of Latin America. One of the countless death metal/black metal bands that came out of Europe in 1999 was Italy's
Conspiracy AD, which pummels the listener at different tempos on this 2003 recording. Some death metallers opt to play at breakneck speed 100 percent of the time, while others prefer a lot of tempo changes -- and this CD demonstrates that
Conspiracy AD falls into the latter category. But whatever the tempo, this band thrives on naked brutality. Although
Conspiracy AD comes from a country where Italian is the primary language, all of the lyrics are in English. But then, it's almost irrelevant whether vocalist Davide Sacco is singing in English or Italian because his satanic-style vocals make the lyrics difficult to understand unless you have the lyric sheet in front of you. Ultimately, a disc like
Humanity = Destruction isn't about musicality; it's about torturous exhilaration carried to an extreme. Nothing groundbreaking occurs on this album -- there are numerous other death metal/black metal bands doing this type of thing -- but if a blistering atmosphere is enough,
Humanity = Destruction offers a competently decent, if less than original, dose of bombast. ~ Alex Henderson