Black Metal History Month - EGREGORE : " It Echoes In The Wild"

This Canadian band gets it. They are bringing a blizzard of sound that is equally dark and heavy in its intensity when it hits your ears. The other straight Egregore find on this album is that the vocals should not be an afterthought, no matter how they are delivered. They draw from more than just black metal, with thrash hooks in the guitar riffs and the aggression of death metal in the way it hits. It almsot sounds like an album from the early 90s in this regard, and the production helps solidify this aspect. It's not underproduced like an old Mayhem album, but it sounds more organic than most of the stuff coming out these days. It is atmospheric without any post-anything. 

"Stair into the Votex" is not just a clever title; it is a ferocious attack that finds them connecting with Possessed-era metal. While it tries to bite your face off, what works is that it is different than the previous song. This makes the reckless element easier to digest, as they already gave you a dynamic contrast. "Craven Acts of Desperate Men" finds "Show No Mercy" era Slayer colliding with early Deicide. They are students of this era of metal and use this inspiration to form something that is convincing. There are some Mercyful Fate winks with the falsetto vocals not nailing the pitch that King Diamond does, but they are not trying to be the greatest singer here. 

They keep up the thrashing speed for "From the Yawning Cravasse." Wise enough to slow things down to create a hook where they chrosu would go if that was how they were approaching songwriting. Darker more melodic elements catch up with the razor riffs. At under two minutes, a mighty chug largely empowers "Cosairs of the Daath Gulf." The momentum begins to carry them away when it gets to "Nightmare Cartographer." This touches on death metal stylings and is propelled into "Six Door Guard the Original Knowledge," which has some pretty cool "Kill'em All" like riffs. 

By the time I get to "Servants of the Second Death," I am listening to things they have not already presented on this album. They close the album with the almost ten-minute title track. It winds around and finds guitar solos in more abundance. There are enough solid moments to keep it interesting. I will give it a 9 as I am normally a hard sell on this kind of retro affair since I was around to catch their influences on the first time around the block, but appreciate what is being done here and will see how it grows on me.Out on 20 Buck Spin March 20th.

pst78