Against The Plagues

Against the Plagues is an international group featuring members from Poland and the United States, and calls Chicago, Illinois home. Here we have a cast that includes Wojtek Lisicki (Luciferion, Lost Horizon) playing leads and vocals, Marco Martell (Malevolent Creation, Divine Empire) on rhythm guitar and drummer Varyen (Forest of Impaled, Damnation). Lead vocalist and bassist Logan Perez from a much lesser known group, Vex, rounds out the group. Those who have witnessed Vex on stage in Vex’s Austin habitat know his deep growls and long-winded screams are at the level of his accomplished ban mates. Additionally, the group brought in another familiar face in Edge of Sanity’s Dan Swano (Katatonia, Dissection) as producer.

With all the band-name recognition, we can reasonably assume a top-notch album. Many aspects of Decoding the Mainframe relate a product of high quality. From the dexterous, Trey Azagthoth-feeling solo play of guitarist Lisicki to the barbaric brutality of drummer Varyen onward to the goblin shrieks of Perez—Against the Plagues makes known their black/death expertise. Fans of the Morbid Angel/Nile/Behemoth triad should applaud the band’s style, as should fans of black metal’s top symphonic acts Cradle of Filth, Dimm Borgir and latter-era Emperor.
- Blistering.com Darren Cowen

Against the Plagues is not what most Metalheads would call a "super group." However, that might change after taking a listen to their debut album, Decoding the Mainframe.

The band, which started out five years ago, is a joint venture between some experienced players from various metal bands. Guys from bands like Lost Horizon, Luciferion, Malevolent Creation, Damnation and Divine Empire lend their talents to ATP. With this much experience, good things were bound to happen, thus Decoding the Mainframe was born.

No strangers to technical musicianship, the guys in ATP have written an ample selection of melodic Black/Death riffs that are diverse burn like hell. ATP displays speedy, morbid and even some thrashy approaches over their futuristic themes. Keyboards serve to enhance the suspense and create a kind of "ultramodern" fear. Some of the mayhem in key verses sounds as if it came directly from a King Diamond or Emperor record.

Although they occasionally resemble other complex extreme metal acts, ATP is superior in many ways. Their fine talents are displayed on tracks like "War Against the Plagues," "Force from Within," "Renegade Manifesto," "Order of Decay" and "The Key to Ourselves." Without a doubt, this band will be able to outlast others that mix melody with extreme metal, as long as they stay true to their current form.

Another thing in Decoding the Mainframe's favor is the overwhelming production, courtesy of Chris Djuricic, guitarist Wojtek Lisicki and maestro Dan Swano. Swano mastered and handled the re-recording of the tracks as they were previously part of the band's demo from 2007. There is no need to exemplify Swano's capabilities as he once oversaw production of bands like Opeth, Katatonia, Wintersun, Dissection and Marduk.

Decoding the Mainframe is a challenging album for those who appreciate melodic and extreme music. ATP present varied material, which shows the influences of the individual members. Vic Records did a great job signing these guys when they did.
- Metalcrypt.com - Lior "Steinmetal" Stein

Sometimes it still happens (just like this time) that the first tones from a debut album by an unknown band graphs me by the nuts and it won’t let loose until the album is finished. Okay, after some research it turned out that Against The Plagues is not just another new band. It is a coalition of drummer Varyen from Damnation, guitar player Adrian from Forest Of Impaled (who is nowadays replaced by Marco Martell from Malevolent Creation), bass player and singer Logan of Vex and guitar player and vocalist Wojtek who is also active in Luciferion and Lost Horizon. With names like these metal heads around expectations can be made. But who would have thought that these guys would create such a monster as ‘Decoding The Mainframe’ turns out to be? Against The Plagues has banned every change of weakness. They worked on this album for three years and if a detail wasn’t satisfying enough they recorded it again until it fulfilled the wishes of the band members. And the best part from this story is the fact that although so much studio time was used for the recording of this album it still doesn’t sound to clinical or over-produced, which is also due to the help of producer Dan Swano.

The music from ‘Decoding The Mainframe’ can be described (in a wide range) as partly Limbonic Art, some keyboard elements as heard with Dimmu Borgir and firm death metal in the spirit of Morbid Angel. Tight and fast blast parts are combined with slower parts, and these slower parts are filled with melodic solos. The atmosphere raising synthesiser is placed on the right spot, not too much in front of the sound and not too much in the back of it, and this mixture of fast and slower atmosphere can also be heard in the sometimes grunting and sometimes screaming vocals. This combination of different moods pays of really well. These men play technical wise very good and the clear production makes sure that every one gets enough room to show his talent. Despite the busyness in the overall sound and all the tricks being played Against The Plagues did not forget to keep an eye on the song writing. Or to put it in other words: these are eight fine and atmospheric black/death metal orientated tracks that guarantee almost forty five minutes of listening pleasure.

With some imagination ‘Decoding The Mainframe’ can be described as a very loud trip through the galaxy and through the darkest thoughts of the human mind. But it is also alright to simply say that this album is a very, very good metal album. Oh, and if there are some fanatics amongst you who start to think that all of this sounds very much like that ‘The Architecture Of Oppression’ album from that band with the same name of 2007 I have to admit that you are correct. This is that same album by the same band. But this time the album is re-recorded, the songs arrangements are a bit modified, the sound is better and the artwork has improved as well. The band says that ‘Decoding The Mainframe’ is actually their first real official album and therefore we will not argue with them about it. - Tormentor Erich of Lordsofmetal.nl