God Rules Over My Soul

Groms, like Corpse, is another Christian death metal band though these guys are more technical. Where Corpse was flat out old school death metal, Groms borrows heavily from Carcass in style, though they are not a copycat.

Groms play groove-laden death metal with thrashy riffs and flashy, but unobtrusive solos packaged into a solid mid-paced album.

"Ascension" was released 3 times with 3 different covers (all are out of print) my copy looks like it was from the 2nd pressing which I acquired from a local used CD store. In my mind this was a great find since I had been reading about this band for a while and was rather curious to check them out.

Starting off with the title track, the album kicks in with a mid-paced groove-oriented riff and you can pick out the Carcass influence almost immediately. The vocals are a more deeper growl, but not incoherent and not cookie-monster like. The song ends with doom style riffing.

"The Riddle" is also heavily groove-laden and mid-paced and "Truth Misunderstood" opens with a strong similarity to the title track "Ascension". The song finds its own, but doesn't stray to far.

"True Wisdom" opens acoustically before kicking into a slower groove. "The Voice Of Righteousness" offers up some more doom style riffs intermixed with more traditional and technical death metal.

"No One" is borderline metal core in its rhythm and picks up the pace some as does "The End Of The Age" which is more traditional death metal and somewhat faster

The album closer is a bonus track "The Just Shall Live By Faith" and although the recording is rougher the tune is straight up brutal death metal. "From Dust To Dust" is probably my favourite track in that it mixes Carcass style death metal with Pantera like thrash riffs. It's mid-paced and hooky.

I wouldn't say Groms is better than Corpse, they are different in their delivery of death metal. If you like old school blastbeats then go with Corpse. If you want more technical death metal Groms is your band.

Lyrically, Groms is unashamed of their Christian roots, but the lyrics are for the most part reflective and thought-provoking.

Overall Groms released a fine album of solid mid-paced death metal and it's a shame that they couldn't grow further as a band in an ever-increasing Christian extreme metal scene.

I'm not sure what will be coming next, but I bet it'll be exciting!