What I am asking of black metal bands in 2017 is to show me more than just blast beats. I want the tremolo picking to only be one color of blackness used. What is the point of just falling in line with the rest of the corpse painted sheep ? Naddred does a pretty decent job of not just becoming another face in the shadows , but giving the dark side it's due. Hailing from Ireland the production can be uneven in places and the vocals fall in line with your typical scowling rasp. The drum sound is the roughest factor, but guitar sounds great if not a tad like Inquisition. For what this is the opener is pretty solid writhing it's way around you rather than numbing you with a droned blitz. The title track finds the guitar keeping a decent balance of ugliness and atmosphere ringing out and this could be because they know they do not have to rely on speed alone.
At times you can hear a more death metal undertone to the guitar on "the Beast Who Walks the Earth" . Aside from being more mid paced and having a more deliberate throb, nothing really sets this apart from what I already got from the last Inquisition album, which has a bigger sound to it. The main difference is the vocals are not in a monotone croak.The last song rather than bring things to a climax that might pull me in just kinda breezed by. These guys are good at what they do, what they do I get in better doses from Inquisition. This is not to say they are ripping them off, but it is a sound that I already have in my iPod. This album is decent , I'll give it a 7.5, perhaps it might grow on me if I were to give it time, but I hear so much black metal that is just alright or gets the job done that what I want from the genre I consider to be one of my favorites is something with more passion and urgency that I have not heard before or at least a take on what is familiar with more of their own thumb print.
This album is being released February 13th by Invictus Productions
2.3
