A Review of the Album a Damnation's Stairway to the Altar of Failure by Italian Black & Thrash Metal Band Extirpation

Extirpation is described as a black and thrash metal band and they are from the northern Italian city of Milan having been formed in 2009. This writer is covering a really heavy metal band from Italy in the hopes that people form that country can see that in fact there is much more in the metal genre other than Gothic or power metal but also given the situation that exists in that country today in March 2020 because of how the world has changed. Italians really have much to be proud of. The album we are reviewing and analyzing is called A Damnation's Stairway To The Altar Of Failure and it was released in 2019. The style of this third album of theirs is heavy black metal with a touch of thrash metal.

The screeching vocals in this album are a combination of the style we have heard in bands such as Witchery and Cradle of Filth as well as a touch of black metal screeching. However, these vocals are just too raspy to try and interpret but sometimes that's what happens with a black metal band.

However, the less than understandable lyrics is tolerable because the guitar work in here is still pretty respectable. Respectable does not mean it is mediocre but it is good enough to be given consideration to listen to. The album starts with the suspenseful and somewhat creepy intro called Awakening but it actually does not sound as evil as one might think.

Then the album goes into the fast song called Into Disease as it lyrically describes what has happened to the human race as many are dying. How did we get to this point the song asks. Then there is a brief break from the fast riffing as there is a beautiful transition. Italy is not as bad of a country for the metal genre as some may think.

The next song Labyrinth of Empty Cages is an attempt by these guys to sound like Norway's Dimmu Borgir. The song Inevitable Sufference has an interesting bass line but once again, the screeching vocals shows no signs of halting. However, these guys do redeem themselves with the song called Faith of the Parasite which lyrically is about people that live only for lust or to gain something from someone that has no real value. In spite of what it says as part of the album's title, the album is definitely not a failure. Coming from Italy, most metal fans wouldn't expect to hear a black metal band from Italy but what we hear on this album is still pretty darn good!

“Stasis” is actually a song with a decent message. The message is to free ourselves from the mental chatter and mental sludge that sometimes gets in our brains and clutters our thought process. These bad thoughts make it much harder for us to live a happy and productive life. Sometimes what we think may help us is just an illusion. “Soul Pact” has an interesting start to it as it is a soft, atmospheric beginning before the relentless black metal pounding guitars start to flood the senses. This is very much like what you will hear on the album called Suomi Finland Perkele by Impaled Nazarene but this is not as good as those guys obviously. Even so, for a modern form of black metal this is decent and passable music.

The last two songs lyrically build upon each other as the songs are trying to say that in today's more complex world it seems we are headed on a stairway to nowhere, For Milan Italy's Extirpation, this album with a long title is decent black metal.