Black Metal History Month -Ashen Horde : "Antimony"

 

This one man band has expanded into an actual unit. Now compromised of members of Inferi, Norse and Abhoria. This expansion has taken the band into a more technical direction that owes less to black metal and more to death metal. The snarled vocals are more black metal than death metal. The riffs however wind around your ears in a more death metal like manner. However when it comes to blackened death metal there are a few scenarios that can occur. These guys have hung onto the darker mood. There are even sun vocals in places. It is an impressive metal that at times fins it self hookier than ever before. The guitar solos are more impressive in the manner they are more melodically nuanced. 

The more melodic moments of riffing help to break things out of the numbing full out assaults' of speed.  The screamed vocals begin to get a little tedious by the third song ,as the sung vocals are more interesting and contribute more to the songs. This guys Stevie from Inferi, is making the right sounds but it sounds like he is going through the motions without having any emotional connection to them, there is no darkness in his voice. He begins to lean more toward the lower growl at this point in the album which resonates more to me as who is is as I do not hear the hate in his heart needed to pull of  Black metal. It is not a deal breaker and the songwriting holds up even with obligatory vocals.  At first it feels like the riff to "the Physician" is going to groove a little more, but only marginally so is the end result Nothing new is brought to the table but a little more thrashing in the verse riff. I do think death metal fans will appreciate this album while the black metal fans might be left wanting, but it's generally a step forward for the band and musically better than most.  

I think this album is a good example of when blending genre's the feel of the added genre and it's emotional or in the place of black metal spiritual vibe is important to capture in order to sound like you are doing it with conviction. That is not happening here. The vocals have no connection to the lyrics which are words that just sound metal. "the Courtesan" does open with more melodic guitar work before blasting off. There is an increased effort in the songwriting of this one. The sung vocals return briefly. The chords to "the Disciple" start off in a darker direction. There needs to be more of this. It turns out to be the album's best song. While the sung vocals return for "The Neophyte" the song itself is pretty cut and past modern metal with a cool riff thrown in the middle , and the rule here is cool riffs alone does not a good song make. It does not suck either, but not on the highest tier of my expectations for metal. The last song blazes by with the emphasis on speed and little hook or nuance to draw me in. The bonus track I am leaving out for the sake of this review. I will round this down to an 8 due to the vocals at times boring me and not feeling genuine, but for this kind of metal they are not normally the focal point any way.

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