The Germans know how to do shoe-gazing black metal right. They make it sound evil enough. Other German black metal can come across as stiff. There are exceptions. These guys bring it pretty convincingly. Though the shoe-gazing side of the band is short-lived as the bulk of this album is in your face and mean-spirited. "the Tide" finds them dropping down to a more deliberate pound with lower death metal vocals. This is just a passage as they are quick to throw themselves into the blur of tremolo-picked blasting.
The more feral moments that discard restrain are not as interesting as there are plenty of bands doing this sort of thing. Take it from someone who has been reviewing black metal all month, and for over a decade, just more concentrated this month. "Astray From Light' carries an eerie dissonance to the main guitar melody that could be called the song's theme. This does translate into a doomy creepiness at times. The vocals push it further in this direction as they are a low growl. The speed is not far, behind, and the blur it creates is one of the songs' more homogenous moments. "A Serpent's Tongue" is pretty much what you expect from Black Metal that is not just a rabid blast fest. This is more of a purposeful gallop. The vocals fall where they should and are not just obligatory screams. Not that they do not have the uniform blast beats, as they come.
"Devourer" is the definition of middle-of-the-road blackened death metal, with enough dissonance to it for me to not just become indifferent towards it. They bring back the more atmospheric sounds from the first song, though it's less black gazing in its intentions, and more centered on the scathing lashing of your ears. I can take the darkness they are peddling seriously enough, I will give this album an 8.5.
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