Mardom : "Dead Soul Age"

The challenge for this Polish band is to separate themselves from the pack of other black metal bands who have done similar. They are using more double bass than blast beats so that plays to their favor. The riffs are not just a buzz, but you can hear actual notes being played, and the lyrics can be understood amid the tortured rasp that stays in an almost croaked mid-range. The vocals are about the most atypical element of black metal. You can hear a melancholic mood being conveyed, which most bands claim to have but I rarely feel it. As a depressed person, You can't fake your funk in this regard with me. 

The second song does not break any new ground, with the pattering of drums marginally more frantic. The guitar uses a similar morose chord structure and sounds like doom that is sped up. The vocals feel like they have less purpose than on the opening track. The tempo shifts, which helps the song rather than just droning a riff out as black metal is prone to. It sounds like he is scowling in his native tongue and at times it sounds like he is saying "Your church is lost" which would make sense in this context as well. By the time we get to 'Inverted Sun Darkness," the formula they use is intact and back to milking the riff for all the tears it's worth, which also begins to make things sound too uniform. 

"Buried in the Dust of Stars" begins to make it clear that this band would appeal to doom fans who never gave black metal much of a chance or people who like metal but not a barrage of blast beats. They rage a little more work in some rapid-fire drum blasts, but since that has not consumed the album thus far it works dynamically though when they speed up they sound more like everyone else. Some blast beats lead into "Unseen Dreams", then it evens out into a more deliberate throb. This tempo does work best for the band, but the sweeping chord progressions, lean in the direction of every other black metal band. To their credit, they have very little in common with Behemoth or any other of their countrymen. The title track closes the album and largely works within the color-by-numbers convention of the genre. I will give this one a 8.5, it's a solid slab of morose black metal that works well. It drops on Personal Records October 4th,

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