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Finally, the aliens who took over Krisiun's bodies after "Conquerors Of Armageddon" must have gone back home, because they weren't doing a very good job of pretending to be a Death Metal band. Finally Krisiun have gotten off their collective ass and recorded a worthy follow-up to that fine album. "Ageless Venomous" was well-written, but had a terrible production job, "Works Of Carnage" was an EP masquerading as a full-length that had two-minute riffless blasts that pretended to be songs. Then we had "Bloodshed", which was better, but still ludicrously short (22 minutes) to be called a proper album.

But whatever was mucking up their metal works seems to have been cleared up, as "AssassiNation" is a return to form. First off, this album has songs, not two and a half-minute bleats of speed, and these songs have some pretty killer riffs in them, they're memorable, and they get your head banging. Krisiun have never lacked for brutality, but here they've leavened the viciousness with solid songwriting. Actually, listening to this side by side with "Conquerors…", this is a more mature album, less reliant on the scaling riffs that Krisiun used to always rely on, so the songs have stronger identity. The album is a good solid length, not an EP padded with bonus crap, and the one cover tune is a solid reworking of Motorhead's "Sweet Revenge", which fits the band's style surprisingly well.

So all of us who have been waiting for Krisiun to get their shit together can breathe a sigh of relief, as at long last we have an album worthy of the name. "AssassiNation" is not groundbreaking or original in any way at all, but it is a satisfying slab of Death Metal and a worthy return for this band. After several years of bullshit, Krisiun is back.