Blaze of Perdition : " Near Death Revelations"

This blaze of perdition doesn't blaze into the Northern sky, but instead burns at both ends with a sound closer to  Behemoth meets Deathspell vibe that hits you like second hand smoke right when you walk in the door of the first song. Not straight up black metal, the calculated manner in which they attack their instruments holds more in common with death metal. It's the blast beat sections that add the blackened element. This is the band's third album so they are really focused in their mission on this one. At nine minutes the opener makes full use of the time span and takes you on a dark journey full of twists and turns at one point I looked to see if this had transitioned into another song.

"Into the Void Again" wears it's aggression on the spiked sleeves of its gauntlets.The guitars are incredibly layered to creature a creeping texture of slithering dissonance. The vocals are gruff baritone growls that squeal off into varied sounds of hellish torment. There is the big Behemoth sound that rises on "When Mirrors Shatter" this gives away to a dizzying flurry of blasting madness.They do not insist on smothering you for too long with these as give you room to breathe by letting the chugged chords hang and then chaotically soloing over them. They alternate between morbid reflection and pounding death metal on "Dreams Shall Flesh". For this to be the band processing their own near death revelations after an accident on the road this is very agonized in it's emoting.

It was on "Cold Morning Fears " where I began to detach from the album as it faded into the background. It has more of the Deathspell thing going on. The creepy sonic coating draped over the cold riffs is effective , but many of the songs still are beginning to sound the same by this point in the album.I find myself listening more for what is different here. The vocals do take on a more shouted and less growled tone at one point on this one and the guitar solo seemed to be better suited for this song.The albums comes to an end with the almost twelve minute blast fest " Of No Light" . The vocals do not attempt to keep up with the blur the rest of the band is at. The tempo sways , they let up to let the chords ring out. The whispered line about falling deeper and deeper is the songs highlights as the bass line also wanders around under the murk of the guitar. I hear at least three black metal bands a day and these guys will be the band that hs put the most thought into their sound today for sure, the album sounds great and is well executed, not the most original but works for what they do I will give it a 8.5.