The latest offering from Impiety is The Impious Crusade, offered on MCD and MLP. At just 5 tracks and coming in at just under 20 mins, this is your quick-in-quick-and-dirty-for-a-fix type of release. This is everything you know and love about Impiety, live and recorded: the speed, the riffs, the syncopation, the rhythm, the harmonies. It’s outstanding: brutal, harsh, fast, and heavy. And like with all excellent EPs, it’s an exciting taster and just not enough: the way a great album should be.
The Impious Crusade follows closely on the heels of two other releases by Impiety this year: Vengeance Hell Immemorial (full length compilation), and Live in Penang 2012 (DVD). All released on Hells Headbangers, the quality is outstanding. Following up Vengeance Hell Immemorial with a mini release also seems to have been good marketing. The quality on Vengeance Hell Immemorial, given the tracks are remastered off the original DAT tapes, demonstrates pretty clearly how the band evolved between 1992-2008. Then enter The Impious Crusade with its faultless production, and you are left salivating at the extraordinary standard.
Musically, the band has been reasonably consistent, which across more than 20 years is a feat and a half. If you’ve ever seen these Singaporeans live, though, it all makes sense. The energy and power is incredible.
Fans of Impiety need to get their hands on both releases. Even if you’re not into compilation albums (lots of metalheads just aren’t), maybe the limited-run vinyl will pique your interest.
8.5/10
Leticia Mooney