IMAGES OF DESPAIR

"Images of Despair" is the debut full-length studio album by Chile, Santiago based progressive extreme metal act Coprofago. The album was independently released in November 1999 but saw a reissue in 2002 with additional bonus tracks. Coprofago was formed in 1993 and released a demo in 1994 and a single in 1998 before releasing "Images of Despair".

The music on "Images of Despair" is highly technical and progressive thrash/death metal. Coprofago are a very tight and well playing band and the listener is exposed to some very technical playing throughout the album. The vocals on the album are a mix of brutal growls and some really effective aggressive vocals. The latter type is the most dominant vocal style on the album. The tracks are technical and quite adventurous feauturing many different sections including a couple of jazzy ones. You´ll get both blast beats, fast thrashy riffing, and some heavy mid-paced sections. Often in the same song.

The sound production unfortunately drags the album down a bit. The music could have gained in strength had the production been a bit more powerful and clean. This is the kind of music that would have sounded great with a Colin Richardson or Andy Sneap production, but the sound is just not as sharp as it should have been. Mostly as a consequence of that, "Images of Despair" isn´t a perfect album, but it´s still a good quality album despite that minor flaw and considering that it´s a debut album "Images of Despair" is actually quite impressive and fully deserves a 3.5 star (70%) rating.