The dark, sludgey crunch these guys open their album with sets the expectations high, andd aside from the sheer weight of what they are doing, I am not sure they can write a song yet. This is leading me to believe this album is going to have a very Ministry-like sound. The second song finds them letting up on the distortion and allowing a tense groove to flourish, with sung vocals chiming in. It brings Dredg to mind. They drone on this groove as the vocals keep things moving while the band holds static. In the upper register, the vocals are pitchy, and the chorus does not soar as intended. This makes me think they might be the msot popular band at the bar in their zipcode but I am not sure it's going to allow them to stand shoulder to shoulder with my bands like Tool or Opeth Which that level of professionalism in your respective genre is what I am looking for here.
They continue down a more Tool-like vision of prog for 'Housholds of a Cosmic War". Which might be too ambitious for them. The hooky chorus and production are where they seem to be struggling the most. The tenor vocals employed here do not carry the kind of aggression that would sell me on this. "Song of Seven Pillars" confirms a distinct lack of conceptual continuity, resulting a band that throws different things at the wall to see what sticks; this more punk attempt is not it. "Devils Blessed by the Rising Sun" does not help their case in this regard, though it is better than the previous song.
"Last Rites for Lesser Magick" has a much better riff empowering it. Though the vocals come in and ruin it, along with the drummer speeding up. 'The Orb was Only Dist" is less amateurish and flows better; this is the direction they need to lean into. I'm going to go ahead and say the last song does not need to be 11 minutes long, even though at the time I am typing this sentence I am only a minute in. I'm basing this on all the choices they have made leading up to this point. They drag the first part out for four minutes nad then build it into a heavier riff. I was right; it becomes ponderous. I will give this album a 6.5; they just need to keep refining what they do in a manner that clicks best for them, but to impress me with one or two songs is better than hundreds of bands do.
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