Thirty-eight minutes and thirty-two seconds of thrashing black chaos is par for the course for the likes of Impiety, but they’ve taken an adventurous route this time around, at least for them. This sick Singaporean kill team strikes again with Worshippers Of The Seventh Tyranny, an odd step down in quality in comparison to their 2009 outing, the somewhat regulation Terroreign, so there’s still no rising from the ashes here. Although albums comprised of only a single track are certainly not as innovative as they used to be, I can’t really recall this type of band attempting it before, and the risk is not without its notable faults.
 
At this stage in the game, Impiety can effortlessly rip through one blastbeaten slice of hell after another with no problem, but the challenge here is how to interpret this solitary song over the course of nearly forty minutes without either getting lost or wearing out their welcome. It simply isn’t possible to blast along at a steady 220bpm with absolutely no breaks or variation in tempo at all without killing both the band and its listeners, and they’re smart enough not to try it. Instead, there is a consistent aggression that takes shape in occasional dueling harmonies, good drum arrangements, and slower sections that assist in keeping things somewhat active. The leadoff riff is in fact the main focal point and is utilized greatly throughout, although the midsection drifts into a Triptykon-styled doom-ish part for a while, but inevitably it always ends up circling back into that Of Lucifer And Lightning level main riff and grating Pete Helmkamp rasp.
 
The big issue I encounter is that they only use about two or three riffs in addition to the main one in order to flesh things out, but the strength of the centerpiece fades after the third time it’s revisited, and it’s really just not strong enough to carry an entire album from start to finish even with those other riffs in support. Their dynamic elements are few, and even though they aren’t always necessary, in this case a couple sturdy departures would have helped immensely. The best part of the album is when they aren’t clubbing the main riff over and over again, and slow down into the Eparistera Daimones bridge mentioned earlier, but if the strongest suit to be heard makes you want to listen to another band, well…
 
I give Impiety credit for trying new things since they desperately needed to, but this attempt at diversity falls kind of flat. The idea is good, and the overall arrangement of Worshippers Of The Seventh Tyranny could have been much worse, but in the end it comes across like they didn’t have enough fresh ideas to fill a new full-length and decided to just inflate a track that should have stopped after seven minutes. We’ve come to expect more from a band of this caliber, but they’ve yet to reclaim the majesty and decay of their late 90’s/early aughties material, and at this point it appears their best days have been left in the distant past.