Black Metal History Month - Grima : "Rotten Garden"

 This German duo does atmospheric black metal right. They have a big powerful sound. The synths are there , but another layer not one that they need to break up the song awkwardly top show you. They are not shoe gazing but capture a similar sonic shimmer. The vocals are well layered with both low growls and higher more blackened shrieks. They do not live on blast beasts alone. Granted their sound is so over powering on the second song it distracted me from what was going on with the song and I began to feel caught up in the drone and drifting a little/ By "At the Foot of the Red Mountains" I am going to need a little more dynamically than full speed ahead and they do provide such break downs with a more Germanic folk influence, they are not trying to be Vikings, and true to their roots. When they default back into the speed, it feels like it could be any band.

The dynamic shift I needed comes in the form of the tittle track. Leading into this there is an interlude that sets the stage, though it falls into that more minimalist school of atmosphere I was eluding to earlier.  They also fall into a more typical blasting as it begins to build. There is a majestic almost Dimmu Borgir like tone to their sound at times, though they never fall into anything symphonic. That majesty carries over into "Gorm" . I often talk about the merits of melody and dynamic, but I am real fine with vocals sounding this hateful I mean they go in an almost Gorgoroth direction here . Gorgoroth is one of my favorite black metal bands so I am 100 percent fine with this song , in fact it might be the album's best. The guitar solo on this song is not a bunch of shred and I appreciate that as well. 

There is a little more of a sweeping post black metal feel to the last song "Devotion to Lord" , the vocals do drop down into that more commanding death metal growl. A pretty easy listen that flows well in the scope of what they do on this album. I will give this album a 9, it is one of the better black metal releases I have reviewed this month. They care about the songs and it is evil enough and still very eaqsy on the ears of most metal fans and not a great deal of harshness for the sake of harshness.