When Sons of Azrael formed in 2004, the aspect of their music that made it appealing was their appreciation for their influences. The band's debut album, 2007's The Conjuration of Vengeance, had an old-school death metal flavor akin to early Obituary and Deicide. Combined with an intense touring cycle with the likes of Vital Remains, Unearth, God Forbid, Thine Eyes Bleed, and Full Blown Chaos, the band built a strong fan base and earned praise for upholding the original style of death metal amidst droves of boring, copycat deathcore bands. Even though there were some deathcore elements in the band's sound, Sons of Azrael had enough older styles built into their sound to help them stand out from the pack. Such an impressive debut justified the band's contract with Metal Blade imprint Ironclad Recordings, owned by Unearth vocalist Trevor Phipps. However, on their sophomore album, Scouting the Boneyard, Sons of Azrael loses sight of their origins and shifts the sound of their music, resulting in a chaotic mess of an album.
