Black Metal History Month - Rebel Wizard : "Triumph of Gloom"

This project from Australia is self described "negative metal" this riffs blend the big melody of power metal with blackened thrash. The first song finds samples sitting in the space vocals would normally occupy. So if you wanted to get into Iron Maiden , but the operatic vocals  are too much for you then this might be your jam. The second song finds them lashing into a more traditional storm of feral black metal. The howling scowl of higher screamed vocals really cement them into this burning church. Fans of Mutilation Rites will dig what is going on here. The first song is more well constructed as when things accelerate the run off sheer piss and vinegar. There is more double bass driving the similar fury of  "Trampled by Wolves and Sheep" .

"Ease of Wretchedness and Wonder" finds the more melodic elements returning to the guitar riff, though the vocals stay pretty nasty. The riff to the bridge going into the verse is pretty fucking killer. They continue to work off of hooky riff melodies on " A Spell of Sorrow" .  This does speed up into a blast beat. Some pretty crushing thrash riffs kick out of the blasting. "Eat the Worlock " works off of sheer anger and little finesse in song writing. They get back into more winding Iron Maiden like riffs on " Sorcery" . This is just enough infusion of song writing and melody to keep my attention and from it just being a temper tantrum that fades into the background.

The samples return for "Hemorrhage wonders" the riff is slower and more powerful. Vocals come in towards the songs final moments to dial up the intensity level. The close the album with the high velocity thrash attack of " Defenders of the Gloom". The guitars once again takes up all the spot light with the black metal vocals the only thing earning the corpse paint here. The drumming isn't shabby, it's double heavy but clearly comes from more of a thrash place. I'll round this up to an 8 as it's attitude makes up for a lot here. This is fun and if you are totally devoted to black metal it will broaden your horizons slightly without making you any less grim.