Death is June : Lantern : "Dimensions"

I often mention how the ergregore of a location influences the music created there. Finland is more known for Black Metal or gothed out symphonic metal. This is not the first death metal I have heard from this region , but the first I am making note of for death metal month. The throaty ovcals are very commanding, but feel more likea declaration than a growl. This makes the lyrics easier to make out. The riffing is kind of mid paced falling somwhere between Entombed and Unleashed. You can hear some black metal influence , but not enough for me to refer to this as blackened. Straightforward, but not paying absolute tribute to any of the fore fathers. I also feels that abundant guitar solos aside this guys are also song focused. "Beings" felt a little more Celtic Frost than the first track once I was able to really pay attention to it.

The vocals are more sung on "Portraits" which was the first thing that made me tune back in after the first song. I do like the fact this album is pretty dark. That seems to be a constant with the Finnish. Aside from this shift in the vocals there is a similar angular yet melodic flow to the guitar riffs, just arranged in more of a call and response manner. On "Cauldron of Souls" the album begins to feel inconsistent after some better creative choices than the more punk influenced riffs we are given here. They come at you with a more hammering aggression on " Shrine of Revelation" which falls in line with more status quo death metal. I do prefer this over what they did on the previous song. There is a more apocalyptic sound to this one which I approve of.

A lot goes down in the 14 minute closing saga of "Monolithic Abyssal Dimensions". With that kind of time invested into a song you have to hope there would be. 14 minute songs are not something I regularly listen to on repeat basis. For what it is they show a great deal of sonic skills.  I will give this album a solid 8.5, this was much better than what I expected going into this. While it might not be something I will get a great deal of mileage from if you are a fan of European Death Metal and looking for something familar enough but still different then this is worth your time. Out July 10th on Dark Descent Records.