Some members of Crippled Black Pheonix got together to form this band. The first surprise is how the female vocals are delivered in a hateful snarl that is almost whispered. There is equal black metal and doom influence here. On "Grime" she sings a little though it is mixed in the background, it also finds the band in a more deliberate chug. The combination of sounds is unique in how it all comes together and they clearly care about writing songs and not just bashing out heavy music. The lyrics are clever when they cut through. "He Moves" has a riff that creeps at a slower more doom-infused tempo. However, in this song, I need the vocals to show me more. She does include sung vocals in the breakdown later in the song.
By the time we get to "Endlessly Seamlessly" the overall sound is losing the element of surprise, and the uniform nature makes it have a uniform sound. I like the slight variation in her voice on this one that gives it more of its personality here. They do continue to ride on a more rock-n-roll chug. 'Crossings" has more of a black metal throb to it. It works for what they are doing here and it is not locked down into blast beats. "Druh" finds the drums pounding out this crusty anthem that is more blackened and straightforward.
They continue to push things in an even more black metal direction with " Wired". Which is fine for what it is , but I am not sure that what it is makes the best use of their skills. 'Without You" shows that there was much more melodic potential here that went untapped as it is a western-tinged ballad. I will give this album a 9 for that reason, some of the black metal could have been trimmed down , but this project has a unique vision for what they do, which I appreciate since it is a very dark album.
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