Shade Empire : "Sunholy"

 

What impresses me the most about the opening track off Shape Empire's new album is how it covers a wide range of dynamics in five minutes, without taking you on a Mr Bungle like circus.  Mr. Bungle is one of my favorite bands, but not what I want when it comes to symphonic black metal. The singer's first album with the band finds him making a mark. The melodic vocals are more like Kamelot flavored power metal than what you would expect. It might make you question the black metal side of what they do, but the harsher growls are never too far behind. Henry is the only vocalist listed which makes it impressive that he handles all the vocal colors with ease.

 The second song is more straight forward, but they find a pretty interesting groove for "this Coffin is an Island", it feels more like a progressive metal band than black metal, but a good song is a good song, and not against them evolving away from black metal. By the time I make it to the title track , my expectations are more realistic, and I haver come to terms that this album is like if Kamelot used harsh vocals more often than the occasional guest spot per album and quit writing power ballads. I like how the clean vocals lean into "Torn Asunder" which bears more of a metal core stomp. "Maroon" finds the pace picking up in a more blackened direction, since blast beats alone do not make something black metal, though they make a pretty decent stab at it here. A minute into the song and ebbs into more of the hyper melodic power metal feel. Genres aside as songs go it works really well. 

"All Consuming Flame" feels like Opeth until they go into more of an electronic jam and the saxophone comes back in. Things roar back with more blackness going into "Profane Radiance" , but they are not going hit you with just a feral explosion. There is going to be hints of jazz woven into this tempest of sound. "Rite of Passage" compensates for the fact the previous song did not lapse into any melodic bouts of melodrama and instead save it for this ballad. I will give this album a 9, and see how it sits on me, as they defy formulas with the dynamic balance of vocals which might push the limits of what I want from black metal , to not being black metal at all, but it is all very well executed which earns this score. This album drops September 15th on Candlelight Records.