There's a l ot of black metal coming out from the states these days and the current trend no longer seems to be to pull out your Godspeedyoublackemperor albums , but to sounds like you are not from America, so its a catch 22 , but these guys have succeeded at defying their geographics.I did not expect the was a sonic sprawl that sounds like whale songs in space before we went into the blasting. The mix is very cavernous and re-verby, though there playing is very tightly focused aggression like older Watain. Its impressive that this came out of Kentucky, as they are not trying to pull out any southern rock influence or anything sludgey, there is some melody in the guitars but the dense mix keeps them in the background.
this album really only sounds awesome when turned up to ear ringing levels, which on my first listen through head phones on my computer gave me a good over view but I had to turn this up to get the full picture. There is generous attention to detail , in what could be a steam roll of brutality that could easilly become white nosie, I can hear a little similarity to Bastard Sapling.
"This Cursed Blood" finds the band launching into mach speed blast beats, that vary in blurs with keyboards passing it by in the rear view mirrors. Things get noisy and hectic almost like Sigh as saxophone gets tosses into the chaos, this tempo gets a little tiresome but the whole middle section is rather interesting when things get spastic. They switch the dynamics on "Death Mimics Life" is rumbles in with a slow majestic swell with the after taste of an apocalypse, not unlike the sonic scope of more recent Nachtmystium. The vocals also have a similar rasp to that of Blake Judd, the production on the vocals here really plays into that as they have a dirty distorted feel.
Things slow down and get more sonic on "Abyss" . It takes on much more of a depressive feel though going big with the atmosphere, the soundtrack to the last robot on Earth having an emotional melt down, you know a mic of Wall-E and Requiem For A Dream. It's very big sounding but kind of drones so if you are wiating for it to go somewhere its a waste of time.
They jerk you in the other direction with the gallop of "Bountiful Godless Life". The acoustic break feelsa little weird though, the very Pink Floyd guitar solo sounds great, the build up doesn't punch enough when it blasts back in but it sounds more like a an issues in the mix rather than there playing. The tone of the growls takes on an unique harshness, and the saw floats up to the surface again, though the reliance of the blast to achieve these dynamics sounds likea cop out based on what I hear them capable of doing ,
What I like about this band is how they keep things dark and the melodic territory they move into on "Forver Night" that sounds like it could be the intro to a Feilds of Nephillim song, not to mention the piano breakdown in the middle of the song is really cool but feel they could have built it up a little differently. I'll round this one down to an 8 as you know how I am when it coes to using blast beats as they easy way out, the more exploration they infuse into their use of atmosphere on here.Sometimes they get the more furious side of what they do right in the sense it captures their own personality, why blast away like all the other bands when you have your own signature you can add to it . They hit more resounding notes than not and have a original sonic take on things , though the influences that do bleed through are ones I like so no complaints on that end.
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