Amon – Liar in Wait (F.D.A. Rekotz)
Friday, 10th January 2014
For those who might not be aware of this (hopefully only an embarrassing few), Amon was the name of Deicide before they became, well, Deicide. The Hoffman brothers got the boot from Deicide after 2004’s Scars of the Crucifix and reclaimed the Amon name a few years later. Liar in Wait was originally self-released back in 2012, but is currently being re-pressed on vinyl by the fine folks at F.D.A. Rekotz.
While there’s nothing particularly wrong about Liar in Wait, it does come across as mostly predictable and rather uninspired. On the plus side, the recent Deicide albums don’t really have that “evil” feeling that enveloped their early Hoffman-era albums. If you’ve been missing that element, rest assured you’ll find it here on Amon’s debut. Outside of this, you are left with what is a pretty generic death metal album. Almost constant blastbeats and/or excessive double-bass, razor-sharp riffs played as fast as possible, and a vocalist that seems to be doing his best Glen Benton impression. Textbook death metal, plain and simple.
Having the Hoffman brothers as a selling point here would work if the material weren’t so generic. Considering their celebrated past with Deicide, Legion, and Once Upon the Cross in particular, it’s hard not to want more from them, especially when given a clean slate from which to rebuild upon. As is, it does the job for a death metal album, but so do a number of similar releases and it does little to give us a reason to choose Liar in Wait over any other current album.
