Kyy : "Beyond Matter- Beyond Death"

Here is the debut album from this Finnish black metal band who happens to be different than your average black metal band from Finland. While they are raw like Horna, they have a more punk thing going for them. Sometimes this causes them to pay more attention to what is going on in the context of the song and not get caught up in the blast beats. They have a feral anger that is very tangible. Most of the screams are delivered in a way that touches on hard core punk. The first song finds them even in a almost sung gang vocal chorus. Death metal can also be heard in the mix when it comes to songs like "Death Within". Like many bands of their ilk that can get carried away in the speed of the forward charge and forsake song writing at times. The darker under current to songs like"Reditus" still make them interesting even when the blood lust makes them sloppy. Even when Watain goes into the really poppy punk like snare I don't like it and on "Panta Rhei" when similar drumming is employed it really does little for me. However I'm more down with the deliberation in the song writing of "Bloodline of Edom".

There is clearly more of a Swedish influence to the throb of "Lord of the Desolate Paths". When they slow down to get darker and creepier then they stand out from the crowd. Sure if brings them closer into Waitain and Dissection territory, but they have enough rough death metal like edges to keep them from comings across as just jumping on that bandwagon. "Destroying Tiphareth" balances out the more blasting bursts with their darker side, though tends to feel the need for speed more often than not. They lock onto to more powerful moments during "In Eternal Desire to End".  "Erecting Temple of Adversary" is another song that also connects on a larger more sonic scale, that is until the blast beats jerk you out of it, though some of this can be expected of black metal. There are layers of atmosphere that attempt to do this and it work to some extent.

The album closes with the darker pulse of " The Narrow Gates of Apoleia". The more mid paced direction is more effective. The vocals go into a lower death metal growl. I'll give this album an 8 as it does make some effective head way in holding onto the raw hate of black metal and expanding it in a manner that is more pleasing to the metal mainstream. This album comes out November 4th.