Lluvia : "Eternidad Solemne"

Fallen Empire's name will be put to the test by this black metal project from Mexico. They have put out some quality black metal with doomy under tones and loads of ambiance , but fro mthe first song of this album it sounds like fairly straight  forward black metal and I do not normally think of Mexico as a place that holds the same egregore as Scandinavia where this music originated. It does lock into a chilly drone, and is dark but that is the bare minimum you should be asking from black metal. Atmosphere seems to be designated to the interludes between songs rather than being woven into the songs themselves. Its blasting as usual on the title track. The vocals are a midrange rasp more strangled than growled. It does break down into a clean guitar tone at the end of the song , but this is after you have already been numbed out by the relentless blasting.

A slower pulse is taken on " Hogando La Luz". The song hovers in one place like it is afraid to let go and move on to somewhere else. The drone is firmly locked into , but where else could this go ? If the answer is no where then you too lack imagination and deserve even extreme music that plays it safe. The Agalloch like break is the albums finest moment. "Divinidad" is the first song that really entwines the atmosphere with the black metal in a tangible manner. This even works into a very melodic guitar part that doesn't sacrifice any of the black metal integrity. The blast beats return and once again feel very obligatory as so many bands seem to make the mistake of doing if it serves the song or not , when they fluttering guitar melody is actually what is the most interesting piece of all of this.

 You might want to argue that black metal is just as valid an art form when constructed south of the equator and doesn't need to be a product of the cold of North Europe, New York of the Pacific North West, but here is an argument against that, all the tones are right, drums are blast and not a swiftly picked, but the feeling embedded in the music is different and feels like imitation rather than innovation. Overall it's decent , if you are starving for black metal and trying to shift through all the bands that seem to be springing out from every corner of the world. I'll give it a 6.