Sargeist : "Flame Within Flame"

 I normally prefer Horna over these guys, but they are one of the bigger-name Finnish black metal bands, and their raw black metal sound has not been my thing.  Either I am developing callouses on my ears that make me more ok with this sort of thing, or these guys took more time in the studio to get things dialed in and sound more like something you can make heads or tails of when it comes to the songwriting. Spellgoth is now playing bass, and Shatraug is on vocals, which has not happened since their demo days. He has an agonized enough croak to sell the songs. 

The drummer from Decapitated Christ now plays with these guys and has a more nuanced style that grooves more on "The Chant of the Rotting Tongues". His cymbal work is really on point. There is enough of a reverb-heavy organic sound to this album to give fans of old school black metal what they want, but the songs have more clarity, which is indispensable. They begin to lock into a more typical sound for what they do, the difference being that you can make out the layering of guitars rather than it just being a buzz. 

"Ordained and Adorned" finds the tremolo-picked guitars having a melody that reminds me of  "Sweet Dreams". The vocals are a little more obligatory on this one, but an improvement given what they have done in the past. Even this accelerates into the wrathful storm you expect from them. There is almost more of a Dissection feel to how the chords of "To The Mistress of Blackest Magic".  "Juravit Sanguine" gallops in line with what they normally do in their more deliberate moments, the new drummer continuing to add worth.  "Behold Our Temples Arise" is almost a catchy song, but the croaking vocals do not help their cause in this regard. The guitars generally sound better on this album when they ring out when strummed like this; it creates a more clanging sound. 

"Rite of Ascension" finds them in a wall of ringing sound that is brighter than previous releases but compromises some of the fine-tuning that had made this album work. Dynamically, there is also not a great deal of variation, while not hyper blasting in your face, everything carries a similar attack. To their credit, I will give this album an 8.5, making it the highet this band has scored with me. 

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