Hope Drone : " Cloak of Ash"

From the blasty beginning this album gets off to the blackened side seems to be the most dominate. The vocals are buried beneath the guitar. Its not until the opener slows a little are you able to hear their more sonic leanings. With their opening song at twenty minutes, this album will be ambitious and does not wait to submerse you fully into their world. It's a pretty tasty world if you are hungry from hauntingly dark and spacious. "Riverbeds Hewn In Marrow" seems to continue on the sprawling formula in place. Begin blasting and go from there. It takes less time for them to drop into a more sonic sludge like pound. They drift along a dreary river before defaulting back to the blast to end out the ten minute landscape. The vocals which are often an inaudible rasp, are layered differently against the blast of " the World Inheirted" almost in a more hard core manner, as they throw in punchier accents. They let the song ride on a droning pound to live up to their name.

"The Chords that Thurm Against the Earth" is closer to run of the mill atmospheric black metal. Cavernous with a hint of melody sitting like a ghost in the background. When the song slows away from the blast beats it finds more power. Things darken on " Every End is Fated in its Beginning" as the drums take on a more tribal pulse, before the default into the blast beats. Its ebbs and flows in intensity, but mainly simmers in similar waters to many other American black metal bands. The song that follows this one is in pretty much the same vein the last two song were just left playing on repeat. The last song is more dreamy and has an almost shoe gaze quality to it so of course I like that one better.

The band lived up to its name in the album final moments, but the song began to run together. I appreciate what they do, if you are looking for some solid atmospheric american black metal then they are worth your time. I need a little more in the song writing department so I'll give it a 7.5.

5.1