Metanoia

Metanoia (REPENTENCE - Greek word in the New Testament)
Australian death metal band!

RAise the Dead Australia Metal Compilation II-the Raise the Dead (Rowe) 1995

11. "Akeldama" (5:34)
12. "Death of the Innocent" (5:01)
13. "Valley of Dry Bones" (4:42)
14. "Eternal Destruction" (4:30)

Metanoia recorded 4 excellent songs for the Raise the Dead-Australian Metal Compilation II which if I am not mistaken was their last demo recording before the recording of their very first full length album for Rowe Productions. Early Metanoia were full of true metal passion, yet play down tuned death metal. Their music was brutal and aggressive yet had some nice grooves. It was quite obvious that Metanoia were as influenced by Iron Maiden and Metallica as they were with Obituary and Mortification.

They also have an unreleased demo song ("Ripped in Two") on Godspeed-Australian Metal Comilation (Rowe) 1994.
For a complete song listing of both these discs, see the compilation section.

In Darkness or In Light Metanoia-in darkness or in light (Rowe) 1995

1. "Accute Obliteration" (4:30)
2. "Enslavement" (4:36)
3. "In Darkness or In Light" (8:06)
4. "On and On" (4:19)
5. "Dead Flesh" (3:21)
6. "Dimensions of Life" (5:06)
7. "Son of Man" (4:10)
8. "Torn By Dogs" (3:31)
9. "Death of Death" (5:54)
10. "Seventh Seal" (8:34)

"In Darkness or in Light" is 100% old school death metal. What I like best about this Metanoia disc is that their roots in old school heavy metal show in the song writing. There are hints of Iron Maiden and Metallica throughout. The last song "Seventh Seal," which is an epic song based on the book of Revelation, has tons of technical thrash metal mixed in with the down tuned guitars and gutteral vocals. What I like best about Metanoia is that they know what melody is and know how to incorporate it into their music without loosing one ounce of brutality. Favorite tracks are album opener "Acute Obliteration", for which a video was also recorded, and the epic "In Darkness or In Light". The video for "Acute Obliteration" is buried at the end of Mortification's "EvVideo" VHS video. "In Darkness or in Light" remains my favorite Metanoia disc.

Don't Walk Dead Metanoia-Don't Walk Dead (Rowe) 1998

1. "First the Kingdom" (3:12)
2. "Path" (4:51)
3. "Don't Walk Dead"(4:31)
4. "By His Word" (4:48)
5. "The Blame" (6:50)
6. "Yowie's Hilltop Adventure" (8:01)
7. "Can You Feel It" (3:44)
8. "Reflection" (1:35)
9. "Grave Beyond a Slave" (5:32)
10. "Threshold of the Annihilation" (6:44)
11. "Kneeling Before Your Throne" (4:25)
12. "Never" (3:43)
13. "Bonus Track" (3:09)

In an attempt to become even heavier than their past release, Metanoia drop much of the classic metal influences and go for a more straight forward death metal sound. This kind of lost me as the melodic parts of "In Darkness" is what I really liked about Metanoia. Despite this, there are some decent to excellent songs on this album. Generally I like the last half of the album better than the first half. "Threshold of the Annihilation," "Kneeling Before Your Throne," and "Never" are all excellent songs. "Bonus Track," which I suppose is the name of the song, is an attempt at humor, although I have a feeling it is funnier to those who are in the know. Otherwise, it comes off as just weird.

Time To Die Metanoia- Time To Die (Rowe) 1999

1. "Smashed" (4:53)
2. "Paradise" (4:47)
3. "Now Listen Up" (3:52)
4. "Judge Me Not" (4:14)
5. "Offensive" (3:23)
6. "Time to Die" (5:25)
7. "Corpses" (3:53)
8. "Raped to Reality" (3:29)
9. "Fade" (4:04)
10. "Is To Be Free" (3:03)
11. "Lack of Life" (4:21)
12. "Feeling the Fire" (3:52)
13. "Blyth" (4:20)
14. "Lucifers Seductions" (3:20)

Metanoia third album is one stinkin' heavy death metal feast. One thing that can't be said about Metanoia is that they get mellower with age. Yowie's vocals are a deep, menacing and brutal as ever, but he adds in some black metal vocals and occasionally some clean vocals. I must add that one song, "Now Listen Up," an attempt to mix rap and death metal just does not work. The remaining 12 songs hold up much better. Killer album cover artwork by Troy Dunmire who has also done covers for Mortification and Lament. Apparently this cover was originally designed for Lament's 'Tears of a Leper" but was rejected by the band's disctribution company Diamante, who consequently was also the distributor for this disc. Go figure. Shortly after this album was released vocalist, Yowie, left the band.

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