Carach Angren : "The Cult of Kariba"

This band from the Netherlands is picking up where the golden years of Cradle of Filth left off. Carach Angren's symphony elements carry the blackened musicals that unfold in their manner of storytelling, which has been streamlined over the years from a more animated flair of dramatics into what unfolds on their new EP. The use of gothic piano parts and romantic strings weaves the fairy tales as they bring them to life in the studio. The drums hammer everything into place under the snarled narrative. Their vocals are not annoying like Dani Filth as he scowls more than shrieks, and his vocal lines have a defined purpose before the grandiose bakc drop of sound. 

The story is more pronounced in a King Diamond fashion on the second song. There is some harsher blasting driving this song that finds the balance between black metal and their brand of darkly theatrical metal. At times when the sung vocals are some of it, I am reminded of Emperor. "ik Kom..." carries a more brooding tribal take on the foreboding tale. It is not black metal, but falls into its own unique shadow-filled palace, as there are traditional folk elements, before the distorted guitars surface. 666

"Venomous 1666" hits with some pretty intense thrashing that is still dressed up to tell the tale at hand. It makes me think that a more Nordic version of these songs is very taunt and effective; they do not let all the special effects used to capture the feel of the subject matter distract them.I will give this album a 9, I appreciate the streamlined approach, but feel there is a great deal of personal quirks that got trimmed here that make these guys stand out from the pack on previous releases, but they are still ahead of what most black metal bands have done so far this year. This is being released on Season of Mist.  

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