November is Doom- Night Resident : "Total Obscurity"

 

The third album from the dark Greek proto metallers flirts with a similar brand of saccharine melodies to offset the darker metallic elements, though taking from the menace. In their case, it also gives things a uniform sound as they go to the well too many times with it, and that is by the second song alone. They have a Ghsot fixation. At least they are not dressing up like clowns.. "Summer Night Tale" is trummed out more likea 60s pop song, before they find a chug. I am all for melody in dark music and hard rock; in fact, I prefer singing over growls or screamed vocals, but here things are getting brightened up too much. 

To their credit, there is some great guitar playing on this album. "Echoes In Eternity" carries a more powerful punch before ebbing into the verse. It sounds like what we heard on the second song with the palm muted chug. The sugary melodies on the chorus are better than just random screaming, but a more aggressive vocal approach with more balls to it might work, as heard in bands like In Solitude, who were able to use emotive vocals to bring the gloom to life. There is more sonic intensity in the strum building up to "A Silent Vow" that dies into a cowpunk strum. 

Things are just not that dark at all for " Dark Alleys", I mean, when they wrote the song, did they listen back to what they were doing? And it's certainly not worth being an instrumental. The more Judas Priest guitar vibes of "Final Words" is an improvement that the vocals piss on a bit. At this juncture, the album becomes something I have to power through. The bass intro to "Ghosts of the Future" offers some promise. It touches on the same melodic themes they have really worn out, with just marginal enough changes to make it feel like a different song. This also includes the awful vocal harmonies that build for the chorus. "Sinking Spell" closes the album. The vocals once again take the edge from the vocals, but still leave a lingering melancholy that works better than some of the previous efforts.  I will give this album a 7.5, as there is some great guitar playing and the vocals try, but the vibe check is off. 

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Black Metal History Month - Looking Back in Anger at Rotting Christ's "the Mighty Contract"

 In 1993 the vision of the Greek Godless Fathers brought to life of black metal is not much different than what it is thought of today. They are already bringing the blast beats in moderation on 'Transform All Suffering Into Plagues". In fact, I think the album might warrant more admiration than you hear it getting in black metal circles today. But we will delve deeper into it. Early 90s metal still had a solid dose of the classic 80sa sound as can be heard in some of the more galloping thrash touches that give an almost "Seek and Destroy" sound to some of the riffs. However, it is catchy and holds up over the years. 

"His Sleeping Majesty" has more of a death metal feel to its more deliberate use of power chords. Granted when they pour the speed on for "Exiled Archangels" the results are no different than when other bands. The key here is that bands had the songwriting smarts to follow the path laid out by bands like Juda Preist, which took you back to a catchier riff. The epic gallop "Dive the Deepest Abyss" is more effective than when they try this earlier form of blast beats. The vocals are way more central to the song than the black metal of today.  "Coronation of the Serpent" works off a throbbing tension more like what they do today, but mixed with thrash sensibility. 

Compared to their new stuff this is more blackened, but you can hear how the evolution makes sense. There is a tangible Mercyful Fate influence in the last song. There are fewer Satanic dramatics, but if you replaced the vocals with King Diamond it could have come from "Don't Break the Oath". Granted the same could be said of many of Emperor's songs as well.  But it's a good thing. I will give this album a 9 as the maturation and more layered cinematic sound they have today is more effective, but this was a proper starting point and a damn good album that holds up over time.  

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Black Metal History Month -Serpent Noir :"Death Clan OD"

You can talk about being occult black metal or orthodox black metal , but when you have Thomas Karlson of Dragon Rouge writing your lyrics then I know you are for real. He also writes the lyrics for Therion. They are like a little less angry version of Gorgoroth. They are a Greek band with not much in the way of the traditional greek metal influences. thrash like venom, aligning this with the early German thrash bands who helped paved the way for black metal. The vocals dig down into there gut for more of a deal metal growl at times, though this manages to stay out of becoming just blackened death metal. The guitars have a great deal of both grit and clarity to them so this is very well done, the next question once the initial sting of heaviness fade from the first song is will the songs move me?  Or will they all begin to sound the same?

Spoiler alert I have already listened to this album once so I will go ahead and say the songs  do not take any drastic turns away from what they have already established by the time they get to tho second song "Hexcraft"  This does slow down and works off a darker throb which I appreciate here, but the wheel is by no means beings reinvented. They eventually speed up from the throb midway into the song as they prefer being uptempo. You can hear touches of Dissection in what they are doing with the guitars/ "Asmodeus" starts with more of a darkly majestic gallop and then kinda descends into atypical black metal with a little of a Bathory feel, the more refined Bathory not the more punk early days. They go full blast on "Astaroth".  I am not opposed to blast beats if you can keep it interesting. My spoiler alert was not wrong, this begins to feel more dialed in, the are not working off the same formula but dynamically it feels monochrome. This begins to make each song progressively less impactful.

The chugged gallop to "Necrobiological..." might be more catchy in the headbanging sort of way not in the pop hook sense of catchy. The rule here is cool riffs alone does not a good song make, so we will see how long this lasts. The last song does not do much different than the one before it except for the fact that the vocals are spoken word incantations and not growling,. I will give this album an  8 it might not be the most original album I review all month , but it is well done.

Black Metal History Month -Akrotheism : "the Law of Seven Deaths"

To break away from the Northern European black metal streak we were on I'll default to one of the only other countries I trust when in comes to black metal ...Greece. 15 days in and I was getting tired of the traditional takes on black metal so I thought I would give these guys a shot. It was the weird interlude in the first song when the sung vocals came in that sold me. They do rage with a raw fury. They do throw themselves into a hail of blast beats. They also are capable of playing at varied tempos. They carry a cavernous darkness to their sound. All things I enjoy in black metal. Their is something sinister and unhinged about them. Half the band has a black metal history in the band Astral Aeon. "Manifest" has some mean riffs that hook you in to further head banging before the blast beats come.

"Desmotr" starts off with a more doom like tone to it before it takes you on a compelling journey with dynamic swells. The sonic darkness these guys create impresses me. I have a feeling this might be one of the years most overlooked albums. "Virtue" keeps things a similar creepy pace almost like one of Slayer's serial killer love songs. Midway into the song they throw themselves back into crazed blast beats. But it is only for a few measures and they are back to the evil pulse. Then things begin to get weird. They lay on the ambiance thick. There is a soundscape of sonic chaos by the time we get to "Oracle". It's less song focused and abrasive atmospheric noise. To them point that it's more of a interlude than an actual song. This carries over into "Skeptom" which blends the ambiance with their more metallic sound more fluidly. It's that weird place where it sounds like the cross roads where occult death metal meets black metal. The vocals more of a black metal scowl and it does cross over into the expected blast beats . At about seven and a half minutes they lock into a riff so cool I wish that they would have extended it rather than just giving a sneak. There is also a quick melodic break down of sorts that is more ritualistic in nature.

The element of ritual carries over into the closing song, which is not really a song at all but a outro that drones on with trance like darkness. I'll give this album a 9. The murky storm they sail you through is very effective mood wise. Not the most easy to listen to, in the sense that this is not an album I would have on my iPod and listen to riding the train. It is a very dark piece of diverse black metal. It doesn't try to throw all the hip metal sub genres at you and things happen very organically. This album is worth your time. It is released on Osmose Productions March 29th.

Black Metal History Month - Rotting Christ "The Heretics"

This band is deserving to be the first review of Black Metal History month since They have been churning out black metal before it was black metal as we now know it. So  for the past 19 years they have expanded their sound into something beyond black metal. Bigger and sometimes more symphonic like Dimmu Borgir. This also explains why they have a larger audience. They continue to weave in various elements of world music into their sound. It pays off and proves they care about their songs. "Heaven and Hell and Fire"  is more of a straight forward metal epic that has more of a pagan metal feel.  " Hallowed Be Thy Name" is not a cover of the Iron Maiden song, I am not sure why bands would ever name a song after a metal classic is would be like naming a song "War Pigs" or "Angel of Death". This song is a slow churning number of beastly proportions. There is a sung refrain that does get its hooks in you.  They slave over the powerful riff and let it drone on.

"Dies Irae" holds a similar tension that is becoming their signature. I don't find this tension as gripping . There is almost a Nordic feel to the chant that drives "I Believe". I am not sure about this spoken vocal that feels like it goes on a little longer than it should. So it's at this point that it feels like the album begins to lose some of the momentum from it's strong opening. There is more of a black metal feel to the march of "Fire God and Fear". The vocals are commanding and it has a big borderline symphonic chorus.It pulls them out to the stagnant one riff drone the other songs were falling into. There  is even a cool atmospheric interlude where tension builds in a more effective manner, leading into a guitar solo. This is more than likely the best song on the album.

"the Time Has Come" has a thundering build up that reminds me of "Enter Sandman".  It's heavier and has a more pagan like chant in the background. There is a lower muttered spoken vocal that builds into more of their typical growl. While this is better than some of the songs that I didn't feel went much of anywhere, it is hard to follow up the previous song , so they set the bar higher for themselves. It almost reminds me of a more metallic less industrial version of Rammstein.  "The New Messiah" opens with a more interesting chant. It goes into a more tense chug, the vocals are really well layered to provide a contrast.This song proves they can work off the more limited range of riffs and still make a good song. While the lyrics to "the Raven" are pulled right from the Edgar Allen Poe poem, the feel a little clunky like something My Dying Bride might do in their more overly ambitious moments when it goes into the spoken parts. I'll round this down to a 9, I like it better than the last album and it works much more often than not, if you are fan then you will love this . For it to get a 9 I;m clearly impressed, but not going to call it a classic.

Comes out Feb 15th on Season of Mist.

Nigredo : "Flesh Torn Spirit Pierced "

This Greek band features members of Ravencult. They ride a fine line between being black metal and death metal, to the extent that they remind me of Goatwhore. The drums are fucking insane. These guys are aggressive as fuck. This can be their strength and foreseeable weakness. I can feel the momentum of the second song kind of numbing me a little as it doesn't match the urgency of the first song. The guitar does have a dissonant pulses which is the most black metal thing about these guys. Though the vocals have a coarse command similar to what Marduk does. There is more of a gallop to "Chronzon Possession" which is needed to switch things up. They do tend to default to blast beats . The best moments is when it is given room to breathe, so the song can briefly take on more of a angular throb..

There are moments like those on "Mental Glimpses at Cosmic Horrors" when you can hear how far reaching Watain's influence is beginning to be on black metal. When they become too reliant on their need for speed is when things begin to get boring. Even the shift into a catchier riffs is just a diversion. It's official I am bored by the time I get to "Sons of Worthlessness". They get into a more punk rock like beat that I don't like. It's too right up in your face at the same speed they have maintained for the majority of the album, so it's beginning to get stale. "Towards the Monolith" tries to compensate with it's double bass. The manic energy of their incredible drummer continues to carry the frantic mood. The guitars make another attempt in creating a melody, this time you can also hear traces of Immortal in their playing as well. The vocals which are a coarse mid=range bark more than a full fledged growl stick to the one dimensional scowl in their raspiness and is one constant factor that has given this album a rather limited ceiling dynamically.

These guys are more than competent musicians. Even their arrangement prove they can write a song if they want to , but fall into the trap of many extreme metal bands and allow intensity and sheer weight of their heaviness eclipse the point of song writing. The trash in what they do reminds me a little at times of a more metal and less sonic Mutilation Rites. This album gets a 7 due to the fact they are so good at what they do. What they do just falls a little flat for me and doesn't distinguish itself from being just another black metal ish band.

Vassafor : "Malediction"

The dark depths of their brand of death metal is welcome to my ears in it's dismal grind, sixteen minutes of it to open the album is on the excessive side.The sound lurks at the cross roads where doom and "occult" death metal meet. The vocals sound more like a low distorted whisper rather than a hellish growl.In the songs third act it eventually evolves into more death metal. This second song which is a more respectable five minutes is straight up blackened death metal. The production has a rawer hint to it when they are are a higher velocity. It drops into that more "Altars of Madness" grind half way into the song. The wheel is not being redesigned here, it's just being spun well.

They emerge from the depths of the darkness with a more traditional metal gallop on "Elegy of the Accuser". The guitar melody is almost more Mercyful Fate like. Needles to say that makes it one of my favorite songs on this album. It is certainly the first moment of this album that could be described as being melodic. It takes a minute or two to get into the 14 minute " Black Winds Victoryant" so the fat could be trimmed a little on this album. They get into some blast beats that are a but of a blur. The distorted vocals , which sound more blown out from distortion than growled , can't really find where they fit the best on this one. Seven minutes in it hits stiff militant riff that reminds me of Morbid Angel. The bass rumbles up and is just as distorted as the guitar. The album closes with another song breaking the ten minute mark .

It takes a minute and a half until "Illumination of the Sinister" lurches to life.This one has an uglier verse riff.The gets a little muddy, however fans of lo-fi murky death metal might appreciate the claustrophobic crypt like quality. Their sound buries you alive. I'll give this album a 7.5 , as it starts off pretty solid then get murkier the deeper into it's vaults you descend. Fans of more underground death metal should dig this, it's a like too limited in it's dynamic scope and production quality for me to get much air time from it.This album comes out October 13th
 

Black Metal History Month - Acriminous: "Eleven Dragons"

If Watain never listened to Fields of the Nephilim and was just out to make raging in satanic black metal they would sound more like this, here is one of th rare occasions where the geographic   influenced is numbed out as these guys sound more like they are from Sweden than they do Greece. The guitar is pretty ripping , yet the bass is even more impressive, the drummer just knows he has to be good. They hold off on the reckless blast bets til the 3rd song.Dissection is also a fair comparison when they are not locked in the faster more modern black metal sound which would then default back to Watain.

They are capable of indulging a more melodic side to bring a more majestic color out, though this quickly falls back into blast beats about a couple minutes into "Elder of the Nashiym". The bass is audible and the guitar works together well and gives the song the space it needs. The spoken word sections are ok as in the are a departure from the normal vocal roar. The drummer gets the job done, but haven't really heard him shine yet.These guys are capable of throwing some nice melodic interludes together, would be cooler to hear them in context of a song and in some cases unsure why they are not just the intro to the song that follows it. "Qayin Rex Mortis" blasts off with manic thrashing and sounds pretty much like the rest of the black metal that is influenced by Bathory. They keep up this furious pace on "Ominous Visions of Nod" which rages in a blur right past me until the bother to slow down into a darker throb. Unable to control themselves they speed back up into a more deliberate tantrum and then back down again so you can't fault them for a lack of trying.

When they slow down to take the time to smell the burning churches and go with some some lower more guttural growls they begin to step out of the shadow of their influences on " Stirring the Ancient Waters" . 'Litany of Moloch's Feast" just kind of blasts by and seems a little like a waste after we heard  this band really begin to come into their own. They further their addiction to speed with the more thrashy closing song. It is however a song that is over seven minutes so they can afford to blast into it at the beginning , but I am more curious to hear what else they can do. I'll give this album an 8, just when I think they are sinking into what every other black metal band would do they throw me a surprise.

Hail Spirit Noir : "Mayhem in Blue"

I loved this band's last album, so I won't lie it's a surprise to hear them go from progressive black metal into groovy 60's tinged black n roll.Some blast beats do crop up, I am not sure I would say they give the end a more black metal feel, I do not that this is going to be a weird ride. The title track finds them bringing back more of the prog feel, and going all out into the wake of Poseidon with Opeth like melodic section before bring some smack down.The sung vocals are well executed and these guys are incredible musicians so it's hard to argue against any of their creative choices so far.

There is a more straight ahead rock vibe to "Riders to Utopia", despite the vocals have more grit to their gruff cadence. The keyboards on this keep the 60's psychedelics going, bringing "Inna Gadda Davida" to mind.  It's not as strong as the first two songs, but it is not bad by any means. A circus like ambiance colors the beginning of "Lost In Satan's Charms". The vocals are smoothly sung as the song builds. The build is very subtle and it hovers in more of prog gallop than getting actually metal.  When the more metallic elements, such as the growling comes into play they create a feeling similar to that which Enslaved has invoked in their more recent albums.

"Cannibal Tribe Came From the Sea" has the kind of ominous throb you would expect from a horror movie of the same name, if such a thing existed. The build on the song is great and feels as heavy sonically as it does metal. The close the album with the more Moody Blues like prog of the dreamy "How to Fly In Blackness". Not the strongest song on the album as it is more of a jam, but I can appreciate where they are going. I'll give this album a 9. It's very strong but tends to wander, those all who wander are not lost here.

Agatus" the Eternalist"

There is a more old school feel to this Greek band's new album than I expected going into this. The keyboards are way too high in the mix and the guitars don't get enough love until the verses. The vocals are sung with some grit to them but far from a growl. At times this even sounds like older Iced Earth in places. They proggy hints they have indulged in are given the spot light towards the end of the opener. They pick up the speed for "the Invisible" and the vocals take on more of a growl. The song oddly improves on the more prog metal chorus. "the Oath" turns back the clock with it's more gruff take on power metal , but I would rather listen to this than the pirate shirt wearing pansies that typically play Progpower. Some high pitched falsetto yodels are even attempted. It sounds like the notes are hit , but perhaps without the same authority some one like King Diamond would nail them with.

They thrash out a little more on the speedy "Gods of Fire" before slowing into more of an epic gallop. "Dreamer" fully commits to it's embrace of 80's metal going a more middle of the road approach. "Perils of the Sea" keeps the gallop going. The song loses focus when they build it up into more of a jam. "At Dusk I was Born" returns to the nitty gritty basics of old school power metal along the lines of Accept or Grim Reaper. There is more intricate guitar work in the bridge, but they never fully indulge the rock god guitar solo opening. "Flight Into Forever' has more melodic leanings and places more weight on guitar harmonies, though the solo fills like it's crammed into the section it pops up in.  The emphasis on guitar harmonies continues on "Gilgamesh" but is far from the kind of success Iron Maiden has with them.

They end the album with a more melodic note with an instrumental, but it doesn't add a whole lot. I'll give this album an 8. It's solid 80s styled metal with a gruff coating to it. Not what I normally expect from  metal out of Greece and not something I would listen to on a regular basis since I normally go straight for the source and grab Dio or Maiden , but a good album in it's own right.



 

Black Metal History Month : Goetic Equivalent

This is the 25th installment in our Black Metal History Month series, so I am way ahead of the game when it comes to hitting the goal of 28th for the month. Meaning there is no shortage of black metal out there. There is a shortage of good names since Goetic Equivalent is one dumb name. It's even weirder that a Greek band named themselves that, but oh well. The vocals are croaky, but not a total Immortal rip off, though I am sure they are an influence.The bass player is way up in the mix which gives a different dimension to their sound than the buried bass and in your face tremolo picked guitar and blast beats most bands stick to. They self identify as cthonic cerebral black metal. This must be short for we are not totally rock kids who want to be Darkthrone. There is an angular yet melodic vibe to their music. Songs like "Emptiness" do pay it safe and stick close to the more pounding style of black metal.

It makes sense their would be a slightly heady air to "Psychonaut". The dissonance here is fairly melodic and the pulse of the riff gives the song plenty of room to breathe. It also allows you to hear how talented the drummer is. This locks in a commanding groove that should inspire plenty of head banging even though this is thinking man's black metal with resorting to becoming a full blown prog band. At the other end of the spectrum they touch on the more punk side of black metal for "Illuminatory index" . They do not abandon some of the more sonic chords they let ring out. They play more to their strengths on "Patient Shore". The drums have room to rip and the thundering sinew of their riff is tight as a nuns ass hole. Oddly for a black metal band it's when they go into the blast beat that things lose a little of the power . "Paradise Anew" reverts back to the tug of war into a more primitive straight forward pounding. The bass works well even beneath this , but over all the song wanders too closely to ground I have heard them cover.

"R Candy" has one hooky melodic riff in it that the song returns to that i like, but other than that follows a similar sonic formula. They iron things out with a sense of renewed purpose on "Chapel". This does cost them some of their heavier edge, but the album did need to broaden it's sense of dynamics. It drones on a similar pattern for the bulk of the song. The vocals haven't really added much to the album so the fact none seem to surface on this song really doesn't phase me, though not sure this song stands on its own as a instrumental . Overall there are some good ideas and interesting sounds that stray from the run of the mill blast beat you to death black metal, to the point of making you wonder if this is indeed black metal. I'll give this album a 7, it saw digital release a few years back and is finally seeing a proper release on April 1st.

Black Metal History Month - Rotting Christ : " Rituals"

The kings of Greek black metal are back. I know they haven't actually been black metal for some time, but indulged in an amalgamation of goth, death metal and black metal, but did so in a much more experimental fashion than Behemoth. The opener is strong it has the big militant chant that has characterized their more recent material. The guitar tone in places sounds more industrial to me, but my first impression of this album is that I am much more impressed than I was with their 2013 album. There is a slower and more deliberate pound to "Ze Nigmar" . Lower baritone vocals are sung in more of a chant as the song throbs with a oppressive march. Things start getting weird on " Elthe Kyrie" as very staccato female vocals that remind me of Yoko Ono litter the verses. There is a brighter and almost Celtic tone to the song as well. There are other guest vocalists on the album such as Vorph from Samael  and Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost.

The chug over Vorph's reading is powerful on "Les Litanies De Satan",  but the song hangs on this just building on another marching beat that feels unresolved, though the chanted vocals that come in sound like they are from "Rosemary's Baby". "Apage Satana" has a tribal industrial feel and works off the same droning chant model the bulk of their songs now seem to flow from. They do deviate from this on the more viking metal sounding 'Tou Thanatou" that ebbs back and forth from a blast beat. The vocals have a  huge choral sound in  parts and a guitar solo also makes an appearance. The paradise Lost singer surfaces on " For a Voice Like Thunder". It starts with a very dramatic spoken word narrative and them transforms into something resembling more of a conventional metal song."Knox Om Pax" keeps things varied at a more ominous doom pacing. It slowly chugs into place. This album much like the two before it have a massive almost cinematic sound. They lock into a very steady chug with a blast beat running like a current beneath it.

While the esoteric nature of this album is clear in the bands intentions the first song that really captures this in the broadest sense is "Devadevam". Sure it follows a similar singular path that can be argued captures more of the ritualistic vibe the album is going for, but the counter to that is the trapping of magick this album surrounds itself with might come from an honest place, but at the end of the day this is a heavy metal album and songs is what it is all about. On both levels they succeeded with this song. The album closes with "Four Horsemen" which carries a dark pulse. It sounds like it could replace the theme song to the History Channels Vikings show. It builds fittingly up into an apocalyptic throb. I'll give this album a 9 it's a big improvement from their last one and finds the band back on better footing.

Spectral Lore : iii

One of those album I meant to check out, mixed feeling about Greek black metal might have added to the delayed response. It opens with a jangly off kilter white noise like riff where the tremolo picked part would go on any other black metal album. These guys need to read the interview I just did with Primordial's singer as they are breaking some of his black metal rules and bringing a haft dose of non convention to the party. The guitar sound is similar to that of Hail Spirit Noir with an icy dash of Enslaved thrown in.

The dry rasp of the vocals is becoming the go to least path of anguish approach for black metal. The sonic nature they bring to the table is hard for me to argue against.One the 16 minute "Veiled Garden" there is the sense that more needs to happen and these guys go the memo as if gets off to a much more epic beginning. The guitar is articulately picked out. Not in an over indulgent shreddy manner, but in a very spacious way that allows the song to chime on it's own little storm cloud.The growling gets a little more distant in the mix. The clouds on their album cover pretty much capture how their chords progressions go. This hits the spot many of the bands that followed Alcest in on the black gaze banner went for, but did not succeed as well as these guys who are not going for that, it just happens to become the by product. The song breaks down into near nothingness except for something that sounds like a babbling brook. I am of the mind that means we are moving onto song number three, but this band wants this to still be song two. It irks me a little, but I'll get over it I am in a bad mood any ways.

The album only knows sprawling epics. "The Cold March Towards Eternal Brightness" gets off to a ringing blast. The tremolo guitar here has an almost chiming quality.  The vocals seem to be screaming out into oblivion.The back kind of soar off into the back ground , though it does soar and pack punches. Not sure if this is really going out on a limb here, but this sweeping majestic flourish sounds like Liturgy covering Moonsorrow. The chanted vocals toward the end are very Burzum, not church burning days , but cave elf era, the songs gets folky to suit the vocals.The long acoustic intro to "Drifting Through Moss and Ancient Stone" has me waiting for Lindsay Buckingham to bust our with a refrain of "never break the chain" At 11 minutes this instrumental interlude is a little indulgent.

They return to more folk tinged black metal sound on " The Spiral Fountain". These guys have a way more organic guitar sound than your average black metal band. It;s very warm and stoner rock at the point in the album. They throw their weight around between this tug of war they seem to be with themselves in regard to if they want to commit to being folk metal. Black Metal begins to win out. Their cool riffs do actually make good songs because they flow in the arrangement.They get a little Iron Maiden like at the beginning of "A Rider in Lands of Infinite Dreamscape."The structure of this swirling mass of guitars falls apart when the blasting comes in. Then chaos is reigning as everything flies everywhere.It is very sonic.

To close out the  album they goes into a Tangerine Dream prog Odyssey with "Cosmic Significance". It twinkles in a similar fashion as old Pink Floyd. This does find it's winding way back to the metal in an almost Enslaved like fashion. The guitars continue to build off of folk like melodies.They continue to build off these themes in a majestic instrumental jam.This album could have used more vocals at times. This ambitious piece of work is impressive. It is not something I would listen to enough to justify keeping in the iPod, but a good soundtrack to have in the background while I work. I will give this one an 8.

Catching Up With 2014-Dead Congregation : "Promulgation of the Fall"

I've heard every one and their head banger mother raving about this album all year, and I have tried to give it a listen and was not blown away, so now I am going to give it one last chance to see if this is really the best death metal band going today or if they are victims of their own hype. The album opens with a gritty enough tune. The low gnarly crunch of the guitar is thick as concrete. The solos are melodic and add a little depth, the low gurgle vocals are what they are and typical for this sort of thing. The drum sound is one factor not blowing my mind as they need to be more in my face. This is all pretty passable , but not yet the best.

 There is a little more melody lurking in thick seething grind they churning up. Some of the riffs are clever and catchy while being rough hewn. I can understand what people like about them, but there isn't anything original going on. It's pretty obvious I have broad enough taste in metal. In some genres there are more acts that appeal to me than others as I look for very specific things in music, darkness and dynamics being one. Death metal can come across rather flat when it comes to dynamics and I have been listening to death metal since "Leprosy" came out. So I have heard most of this done before. This is a conglomeration of death metal riffs I have heard from the 80's given a fresh coat of grim and spit back out at me.

The songs after the title track began to bleed together on me, I had to go back and see where one song began and the other ended. The reason for this being , all of their songs sound the same. They are variations on a theme . A very crushing theme. But they same monochrome shade of bloody carnage. Some of the reason for this is songs like "Serpent Skin" that blast by in a tumbling blur of blast beats, run flatly into the next chug with nothing, but a shift of riffs to define it. They work better at the slower more powerful chug. But can't use the restraint to milk those moment and go into blasts that sound like all their other blasts. They implement several Morbid Angel like punches along the way to accent things, but this is far from really making their songs say something with more than one feeling.

Sometimes this formula works well like the beginning of "Immaculate Poison" , but they default into taking the easy way out by just mindlessly blasting.It does nothing to further the song or have a point.At times it only sets up a slower chug of a more interesting riff that is laying the ground work for the solo to come. When a song like "Nigredo" tumbles out of the speeding pound these Greeks dish out, it almost becomes white noise. There is nothing to even distinguish it as a song.

On "Schisma" they really take a page from Morbid Angel's book. Though the insane blasting reminds me more of Suffocation or Cannibal Corpse. The solo sections are way more melodic than something Cannibal Corpse would do. They end up taking the speed demon addiction way to far and lose all musical feel. This blasting tantrum continues into "From a Wretched Womb" that closes out the album. It's just way too straight ahead for me, it gets into the really flat sounding snare hit that I dislike in death metal until it slows down, into a more doom like tempo that is not maintained for longer before it collides with the speed, but at least this comes about in a slightly more interesting
manner,

They fail at the golden rule around here, "cool riffs alone do not make a good song" the album sounds good, it might even grow a little on me, but the new Incantation scratches this itch and it can't come close to the new Mortuary Drape, I think just clicking through the blog you can find at least three other death metal albums that will score higher than the 6.5, I'm giving this one, just off the basis of it's dark dense sound and sheer aggression.