This Swedish band gets points for honoring the metal traditions and not just going off on a blast fest. The opening track of their new album is pretty epic. It is well produced and checks off all the boxes of what you might want from Swedish Black Metal. Now what I am going to listen for is the chances they take to stand out from every other black metal band that is doing the same thing.. I feel less confident in that being delivered when they pour on the thrashing speed for the second song. The vocals shift their rasp to almost being sung if we are talking about Blackie Lawless doing the singing. Perhaps this album should be called "the Blackie Lawless Darkness". It does give it enough of a shift left of center to work well enough, which would put it closer to Destroyer 666 on the black metal scale.
They do go in a more melodic direction, with the emphasis being on almost melo-death-like guitar harmonies cascading over the more deliberate pacing. It sounds like a cool idea that is being honed into a song but could use more songwriting than just being content with capturing a sound that is metal as hell. Are they capable guitarists? Yes. Cool riffs alone do not a good song make. That is one of the laws of this blog, the reason time is taken out of my life to do this. I am on an endless quest to find well-written songs that are dark and melodic, yet empowered by a sonic heaviness. I obviously love Black metal or I would not dedicate an entire month to it. That is only 28 articles you have to write, you say. Listen to 28 different Black Metal albums in a month and you will hear the importance of doing something that stands out from the pack. Or maybe you won't. Maybe you just like here the same old same old and are afraid of change.
"As Death Comes Reaping" seems like it is going to be almost 11 minutes of what we have already heard variations of in the previous four tracks. There is the obligatory raging speed. There are also harmonized guitar riffs racing in tandem. There is also me bored four minutes into this song hoping something new is done here. This can be done and still be true to what the genre is about just ask Emperor or Watain. Sure what is not to love about a triumphant metal gallop? Well, there is fact it's been done to death. Let's throw some guitar solos in and see if it makes the time go by. The album ends with more of the same. Granted this same is really well done, and if you are already a fan of these guys it is going to be what you want. I will give this an 8, for those reasons.
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