One of the guys from Sadistic Intent is in this band. They are pretty legit as far as black metal in America goes. The opening track shows a desire to still write songs rather than get lost in a haze of blast beats. The vocals are a mid range rasp , with a frew lower growls thrown in . They follow patterns rather than just screaming for the sake of singing. It is concievable that there are actual lyrics being snarled. By the second song it has not devolved into a total blast fest but they are milking the tremolo drone, beginning to invest more in the sound than the song. They get faster but not thrashing on "Upon the Tomb of Sacralige" . It keeps a cold and nasty vibe despite coming from sunny California. California does have a dark side, after all it birthed Charles Manson.
There are a lot of prepositional phrases in this album . " Towards the Temple of Darkened Fates" is driven by some inmpressive drumming. The rapid fire double bass employed is a wise choice. The song modulates out of the inital riff that hit you and begins to explore on the album's more dynamically adventurous arrangements. The blast off begins "Within a Coven of Shadows". The vocals do not have as much of a purpose in the more frantic manic mood. I also begin to wonder what song I am listening to as when they get into this mode everything takes on more of a uniformity The vocals begin to have more of a croak as well as more torment in how they are emoted. Things slow down into more of a deliberate throb for "Tenebris Venit". The atmosphere to this song more melodic and haunting.
They are more overtly wrathful on the last song. It is more up tempo and pretty straight forward more in the 1349 brand of black metal. I will give this album an 8. It is really well produced while beoing trve to the cvlt sound. If you do not want anything new added to your standard death metal, and wish it was from America not Norway then this might be the album for you. Out on Debemur Morti Productions.
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