Ofermod : " Sol Nox"

The Swedish black metal horde is back after five years with a new full length. This time there is a bigger crisper  sound.

Mephorash : "1557 Rites of Nullification"

This Swedish black metal is an odd beast. Featuring a choir of vocalists, three and a guitarist who also sings backing vocals, and one of the singers was in Ofermod. No drummer is credited as being in the band. They have a big sound, think Behemoth. Watain is the closest of their country men they could be compared to, but they do not have that rawness to their attack even in the sparse blasting sections. There is chanting and symphonic keyboards layered about the vast cavern this sounds like it was recorded in. Despite the big almost arena sized sound, they still maintain a somewhat ritualistic element to their music. The vocals are low gurgled rasp and some times chanted over a stacatto pound. At one point it sounds as if the vocals even go into throat singing. After they have crawled down into the serpentine levels of the abyss the blast beats can be a bit of a buzz kill, yet they can flow out of them with a creepy passage of clean guitar and a distant organ.

The second song breaks the ten minute mark, but they do not drone on or take too to long to get to the point. There is a fair amount of ambiance leading into "Cheidolun" but less than a minutes worth and a slow beat crashes into with a depressive meter.  Not that they are bad at blast beats, its just that the band is so good at other things it seems like they are just throwing them in because its expected.  "Phezur" has a very Mayhem like feel to the vocals that are almost sung in a bellow more than rasped. The excel at creating an evil atmosphere and then jarring you out of it with blast beats. Some of colder and more stark guitar passages could use a little less minimal drumming to support them. The drip of rain and the ringing of a bell, links the closing song to "Cheidolun". They go out with a more feral roar, but this too is given a catchy groove and larger than life boom.

The distorted throb of bass that they use to as a bridge in one part is one of the albums best moments and even though it leads to a more typical torrent of double bass proves to be an effective transition. These guys are not predictable. They are very dark as black metal should be , but when aligning itself too closely to punk can loss that feeling and become preoccupied with raw speed. The synths are well placed on this album and it has an elegance to it's depressing introspection the songs often fall back onto. Lyrically you can sometimes get an understandable glimpse into their grimoire. Its very occult based, but not in an obnoxius stab for attention. Sure there are some similarites to Mayhem and Watain, at times it is like you mixed the two together but when it comes to black metal those are good influences to wear on you spike gauntlets. I'll give this album an 8.5 it was very enjoyable and if you are looking for good tortured yet darkly ritualistic black metal that doesn't sound like it was recorded in a tine can this is worth your time.

Ofermod : Thaumiel

If you don't know Ofermod and I were to tell you they are a Swedish black metal/death metal hybrid, you might be prone to think they are one of those almost mall metal bands with the harmony guitar solos all over the place or that they are worshipers of Dissection. Neither of these is really true. In some ways they blend their sound in a way that reminds me of Behemoth. But where Behemoth has become overly slick production wise, instead these guys have many more blasts and go for the throat without all the bells and whistles.

The first song on their newest album "Sisters of Rapture and pestilence" is an ode to succubi everywhere. It has a very powerful but creepy groove to it , and when i say creepy I don't mean sounds of the haunted house but exposing yourself at a funeral type of creepiness. Hearing them growl" drink of my semen" is pretty metal.

"Black gate" almost has a Dimmu like feel in the guitars. This song took a few listens to grow on me, as Midway into this one the riffs start to blur. Though there's a section that reminds me of Watain in the songs second half.The groove on "Calling of Setnacht" which follows is better though on the blast the vocals kinda forget what worked before and seem a little scatter, it also acquires a slight Mayhem feel. the very folk metal like clean vocals that show up midway into this one are a surprise. the Guitar solos start popping up here but it maintains a rawer feel than what most people refer to as death metal these days.

"Undead Moon" This one starts off with the biggest dynamic change as it plods along like what most people would call doom, though not enough to convince fans of Evoken. The folk metal vocals return here and in the first few listens I kept being so surprised by them and checking to see if I had mistakenly clicked on Amorphis. In first few listens I was unsure how I felt about them but grew to appreciate the color they add to this album. I am generally a fan of clean vocals so if you can introduce them in a way that makes me befuddled for a second then the transition was jarring enough to prove effective.Once you get use to them it becomes clear they are well sung with a rich mournful intonation

"Prayers Unto Warped Eternities" Has a strong verse riff, mid tempo then goes into a more blasty part near where the chorus would be expected to fall. There's a chanted section which would be closer to what you might expect from a chorus, to ominous to be frolicking but i'm sure a mead horn could be swung to this section. It leads into some nice dark picked out chords, which isn't where you expect it to go and it's these odd choices that gives this album an endearing personality.

"Choshekh en Sof" is a very dynamic song that makes me wonder why have I not being listening to this album more, the bass line at the end of this song is strong in a creepy way and the spoken word vocals that would not sound out of place on a My Dying Bride album work here.

"Chained to Redemption" From the beginning I though they were going to default back into the blasties, and while this one rips full speed ahead in more of a death metal mode with double bass flying, the tremolo section layered atop it gives it a little more of an epic feel. The last two minutes feel kinda like "Altars of Madness" era Morbid Angel to me, yet this songs being the most straightforward makes it the albums weaker moment.

"Via Noctis Veil of Garophias" Has a weird almost Immortal feeling at the beginning, maybe this is because the vocals take on more of a croak. The song also has more of a mid tempo swing to it accented by faster elements. The croak also reminds me of Attila from Mayhem, which is another strong influence I hear on this album though not one you will hear me complain about.

This album is a pretty enjoyable listen , not so cvlt you aren't having fun due to the grimness of it, the lyrics are decent and the songwriting takes chances rather than just adding to the ever growing pile of color by numbers black metal coming out every week.So I'll give it an 8 as it is well worth a listen to for fans of second wave black metal who want something with a little different taste to it.