As I wind down the list of albums I have to check out before putting the finishing touches on my end of the year list it is now time to crank up this band from Denmark. At times they are like a moodier more throbbing version of Deathspell Omega with the blood of Death Crush era Mayhem in their veins. The vocals are crazed without sounding like every other black metal rasp we have heard before. They know there is more than one way to approach black metal and thus do not feel the need to compensate by only using blast beats. They do throw themselves into a more frenzied attack when the blood lust hits them. The pulse of the title tracks throbbing shifts, but could be a more dissonant extension of the first song.
Clean guitar opens the song "Mortul Vivos Docent" as it grows darker , but would not call this atmospheric black metal. It reminds me more of Slayer's serial killer power ballads, until the pace picks up and then it has more of a death metal sound. It slows back down , but at this point in time I'm too numbed out by it all. The drums get off to a slow start on "the Serpentine Gnosis". The guitar rings out with a creepy tone that is rides the first two minutes before things build in a more death metal manner. The aggression they lock into feels more death metal than black metal half the time. That is not to say they do not lock into these places with a dark and powerful grimness. You almost have to flip a coin as to if this is a blackened death metal band or not.
They dial up the epic before the blast beats scatter it's ashes on "Devouring Wrathe". The vocals sneer, snarl and growl much like they have for the bulk of the album. These guys are certainly not slouches in the chops department. Some of the punches have more thrash roots to them than other times. The song rides the same wave, with some break downs for the more Mayhem like exclamations to be made and then it's back to the blasting. I'll give this one a 7.5 for it's mood and that chops that went into this.
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