One of the buzz generating metal albums of the year of the variety cooler than say Cattle Decapitation, a Polish band with a Swedish sound. It's very Dissection, in that in doesn't rely to much on the blast, some exceptional drumming on this album and the songwriting isn't to shabby.
The songs are just numbered so that is how we are going to do it here
1- first off the guitar riff this opens with is where the Dissection comparisons started for me and when I say that I don't mean in the tribute band manner Thulcandria goes about it. The groove it hits a minute in is a winner in my book. Off the bat the drumming impressed me but the vocals feel one dimensional but in its open this wasn't a distraction.
2-this one is more melodic but darker and still powerful almost a sludge feel its a riff that wouldn't be out of place on a Tool or Neurosis album and I suppose you might as well go ahead and say Behemoth, but despite a homeland they don't have much in common with them.
3-the blasties break out and before this song I just wasn't hearing the black metal but this song qualifies it even has a drone to it and to be honest the riff sounds like a variation of the previous song just taken to a dynamic turn , when the drums go into the groove it's epic and that's not a adjective I throw around lightly to describe every gallop that shows up, but this section redeemed the song for me that seemed one dimensional before this transition. They revert back to blasty mcnasters and it seems a little like taking the easy way out to me, though there are some creative accents as they song winds down.
4- back to the more melodic take on things, this has a churn similar to Nachtmhstium but without the punk underbite. I am beginning to pick up on their formula of let's riff of variation of this theme then bookend end it with blast sections.
5-mid tempo the chords have a nice ring to them, the straight snare pattern isn't my favorite as this drummer has already done some more interesting work but before we fix it let's have a blast...beat that is. I can hear a little Immortal if I open my ears up its in the way they let the chords ring out.This guys feet canfucking fly though and I do like the fact the lyrics are discernible.
6- the beginning makes you think they are going for an old school metal opening they head fake to the left hand path and it powers along. The riff is pretty driving so it distracts me more often than not the snare is a little stiff, the disco hi hat works and gets it lubed up. It gets into Watain/ Bathory territory , particular with vocal chant.
7- this one opens with nice cymbal work and takes a drone into the actual song with spoken words muffled in the back ground. It builds into the blast. The double bass is the only thing that really provides variation once the vocals kick in. The drums switch up in what would be the chorus section but is a more driven variation of what they have been droning on. This is pretty powerful stuff in the feel it captures, though maybe not the most compelling song writing even though it's not a faceless blur of blast beats. They have generous sense of dynamics yet in the last three and a half minutes of the album I was hoping for some thing a little more sonic and it stays pretty straightfor forward. They playing in dead on and excellence is in the execution here though the influences are worn on their sleeves I'm split on scoring this one so I'll round it up to an 8 as the bands it's derivative of are some of my favorites so, that the way to steal
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