NULLIFICATION “Kingdoms to Hovel”
By Dr. Abner Mality
You can’t judge NULLIFICATION by the first couple of tracks on their debut. Both the overlong “Intro to Annihilation” and first proper track “The Sledgehammer” are not indicative of the rest of the album. The former is the usual synth-laden intro while the latter is just a basic death metal blast. It isn’t until second track “Calamity From the Skies” that we get to see the real NULLIFICATION.
These Phillipino dudes are devotees of death metal the ancient way and there’s a lot of ASPHYX and PESTILENCE, amongst others, in their attack. “Calamity From the Skies” definitely has a whiff of those Dutchmen with its chunky, galloping rifferama. Good, unpretentious stuff and there’s more to come. “Negated Fields” and “Inside The Surreal” bring more of that primal sickness, especially in the van Drunen/Mameli sounding vocals, but the lead guitar soloing reminds one of classics like CANCER and early OBITUARY. “I, The Nullifier” ends the album on a brisk, intense note.
This also has the dry, kind of grainy production that death metal had in the early 90’s. No triggers here! NULLIFICATION is not rewriting metal history here, but they sure pay honest homage to it.