Awe : "Providentia"

Was curious to see what all the hype in regards to this band from Greece is all about, and was disappointed to see the album was comprised of only three songs the first being twenty minutes as that leads me to believe they can no actually write songs , but instead will wander around making interesting sounds that only lead to a blast beat or four. Four minutes into the first song and I am still unsure if this theory is unfounded. They have some great dark tones and show a great deal of restraint as they have resisted the urge to go into a blast beat. The song does drone, though this builds in a sonic swell. They hold out for two more minutes and then the blast beats come couple with low growled vocals that sound more death metal than black metal to my ears.They come out of the blast in a interesting off time groove that it's cut off prematurely in favor of more blast beats. Sure there is some Deathspell Omega influence, but is that really revolutionizing black metal? Heading toward the thirteen minute mark they make some melodic headway and the drummer makes good use of his double pedal.

When they launch into the second song this could be any of a hundred bands or more. Dissonance aside this comes off more like blackened death metal than black metal. The aggression consumes room for other emotion. They break down into wandering time signatures before going into a more straight forward passage that leans more toward black metal. By the minute mark they are succumbing to the blast beats again. The third and final song is a brutal blast fest, with impressive drumming, but nothing all that creative happens, until some of the echoing dissonance erupts before the more thrashy section that is short lived before the four minute mark. Two minutes later it finally slows down into something more melodic. This builds with a darker throb under the cleaner guitar tones.

There are plenty of black metal albums that cover more ground and do this sort of thing in a more original manner. This might appeal to fans of Valdur who wish the band would gallop less and jam out more. I'll give this a 7 as it is well played , but far from the mind blowing new movement of black metal that some people are trying to make it out to be. Sure there has been a lot of creative black metal coming out this year , but with quantity comes the numbers game that sacrifices quality, this falling somewhere in the middle.