Hells Headbangers is probably the most sterling of all labels focusing on underground black / death metal, bestial black metal, war metal or what the hell you ever want to call it. All the terms apply to Sanguis Imperem's debut album In Glory We March Towards Our Doom as well, a furious monster of blasting rapidity, growling guitar lines and overall top-notch execution. My first encounter with the band happened on the Nocturnal Blood split but I never gave this band's side enough attention as I primarily listened to the split due to the aforementioned band. Nevermind, In Glory We March Towards Our Doom is an attestation of the young band's skill that is surely worth looking into if the characteristic clichés of the subgenre don't matter.
The introductory ”Nil Igitur Est Mors Ad Nos” might give a misleading notion of the album as a whole, as it's definitely the only song on the album that is led by grandiose acoustic guitars, though it is still fittingly belligerent in atmosphere, no question of that. Soon after, ”The Scourge of Men” kicks in the proper, all-crushing metal, this certain piece belonging to the highlights of the album, the hell only to be continued on the subsequent seven tracks. The band does accelerate a lot, but also realizes to include slower parts where the rumbling guitar sound is magic at its best. Overall, the song material does suffer from repetition and a somewhat narrow array of ideas, and this turns out to be the album's only proper weak point.
And that is the very reason why I am not able to rank In Glory We March Towards Our Doom to the highest ratings possible, because it's very much the same we've heard before. But at what it does – a strict style of ass-kicking old school black / death – it does it with authenticity above many other contenders in the (battle) field. I also dig the cover art which is a nice change from the usual, Blasphemy worshipping black & white & red imagery. Fans of the label's usual output can't go wrong with this one.
3.5 / 5
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