The House of Capricorn : "Morning Star Rise"

This one was discovered in the ancient manner of flipping through a metal magazine in a book store one day. I wrote the name down so I would not forget, then looked them up the next day.Not unlike the days of old the description was much different than the sound I found, but I am not complaining. The new album from this New Zealand based band starts off with dark driven rock tinged storm that comes at you head on like Motorhead jamming with Sisters of Mercy. The rock elements take a more melancholic shift. They keep things just as heavy sonically as they do metal.

"Shrouded King" almost gets too rock n roll for me, the singer's voice begins to remind me a little of the dude from Primordial. with this rock element there comes with what some might consider either a dab of pretense or cheese depending on where you tastes sit. But these guys are still rock n roll in the way earlier Beast Milk was.

Doom is another label that gets thrown around in regard to this band and "Ashland" is the first song where this is hinted at. They seem proud of the fact they hail from the swamps of New Zealand, no matter what part of the world your swamp is in as the murky water colors this sometimes in a similar shade as Acid Bath. They return to a more fuzzed bass style of dark rock on "The Only Star in the Sky". It's almost like upbeat doom, in the manner the riffs are still mournful despite being pushed forward by the drums.It become undeniable there is something very 90's lurking under it all here, but fortunately it comes from my favorite corners of the 90's .

The straight forward balls to the wall and foot on the monitor brand of rock pumps on in "Ivory Crown". These black denim moments is not the band at their  most creative. While still straight forward they do more interesting things with the chords to "Watching Angels Fall". The lyrics to this song and the other while holding Satanic elements come across more seriously than say H.I.M or Ghost.

They return to a more doom heavy sound on the closing dirge "Dragon of Revelations" which at nine minutes is also the album's longest song.The arrangement to this song and many others is fairly straight forward pounding one thematic riff home until it builds into the chorus. I'll give this one a 9 and see how it grows on me , I can see my girl friend who is more forgiving about rock n roll getting more mileage out of this one than me, but it's still a pretty bad ass meeting of dark sounds with balls behind it. Keep and eye out for this one when Svart Records drops it on November 7th.