Shrine of Insanabilis"Disciples of the Void"

German black metal has often struck me as being a little stiff until I head this band. They have depth to the darkness seething under the riffs that lie in-between their blast beats. When they wander off the blast beaten path their evil really begins to shine. Not to say they are not good at your run of the mill lightening fast lashing. They have more than enough dissonance to make me happy.  I can hear why they have been compared to Deathspell Omega, but think these guys are less angular with songs that flow more easily leaving the neck jerking changes as window dressing rather than the prime objective. Though Deathspell Omega has changed their sound so much over the years it really depends on which album you are talking about. "Acausal Paths" has it's challenging moments and interesting section, but do not think it is as good as "Ruina" .

They like to place little minute long interludes in-between the real songs. They blast right into "Invocation" . There are some glorious galloping into battle section, but for the most part they are really taking the fight to your ear drums and handing them a pretty good beating.There is a more melodic section following these blast beats, the guitar hangs on the melody that has been running throughout the song.They lay back an take a more deliberate pace on "Still of this Earth" the vocals drop into a lower rasp, before they blast back off again.

"Cycles and Circles" merges the dissonance with the icy blasts. As the album progresses the bands reliance on blast beats to move the songs becomes more apparent. "Acerbus" takes a more deliberate tone and tempo. There is almost a groove to it's pulse. This almost doom like pace shows they do not have to throw the tremolo picked guitar out with the bath water as if floats over the stomping beat. When they are not losing themselves in blast beats, they have some moving songs with a wider range of dynamics than most. I'll give them an 8.