Predatory Light : " Waking the Sacred Flame"

 

The second full length from this band that features the former Ashborer guitarist Kyle Morgan.  Where Ashborer were one of the forerunners of the American atmospheric black metal scene, this band is more straight forward black metal. Most of the ambiance comes from the reverb heavy mix, that creates a cavernous feel to what is going on here. The doom influence that seeps through odds a very melodic quality. The guitars excel on the first song at creating a romantic darkness with the choice of intervals employed. There are bursts of speed interjected, but double bass is far more common than blast beasts. Which I am fine with after all how much more can the tired old blast beat trope, be elaborated upon decades later. The song ends with dynamic almost neo -classical mood. 

"Wracked By Sacred Fires" sounds like oddly mixed Watain, if they decided they needed more guitar harmonies rather than big riffs.  In terms of songwriting, they take one theme and work off that, the title of the song is snarl at times, but I am not sure if I would call it a chorus as there is little in the way of hook to it. There is some dexterity in the playing when it comes to the harmonies employed in almost a early Iron Maiden manner or  even Merciful Fate could be a fair comparison, in terms of the guitars . In fact that kind of dark Fate like vibe might be what I like the most about this . Another way to say it is if you combined Darkthrone with Emperor , the results might be similar.  

"Death and the Twilight Hours" is doomier at first. It works in a more conventional song structure, though without the hooky or anthemic chorus. When it builds up there is almost a thrash like feel to the guitars.  They come closer to blasting off into a tempo more common in black metal on the last song. The execution of this has more in common with Dissection than Marduk or Mayhem. While Dissection is one of my favorite metal bands the shadow of their influence is not enough to keep this from treading too closely to your more run of the mill black metal. Not the strongest song of the album, that otherwise draws from many brands of blackness that resonate with me ,so I will give this one a 9.  

Predatory Light : "s/t"

Here is the first full length from this West Coast based black metal band. They feature the guitarist from Ash Borer, but are a darker and more savage brand of the genre. "Laughing Wound" opens the album and proves to be less about the sonic wall of atmospheric sound that Ash Borer created and have more of a cavernous old school sound. They do not build their brand of black metal on blast beats alone, which is refreshing, but they have also fused doom and death metal into their sound so they are far from finding themselves relying on the conventions of the genre. "Lurid Hand" finds them closing in on a more conventional metal sound despite the guitar waltzing around the drums. Vocally they owe more to death metal.  So far my only complaint is when the drummer speeds up, it seems like his playing reverts to a more rudimentary approach. There is a cool creepy riff in the song's mid section.

They are more deliberate on "Path of Unbeing" until it storms off into the blast beats. The guitar dips into some angular acrobatics in places.It takes a minute for them to really get into " Divine Membrane". It feels more like a darker death metal song . They get creepier on "Sacrum" which has a doomier tone. I really like the guitar melody it opens with. When it blasts off into the tormented acceleration it loses the mood. It does return to this later in the song, but I wish there was more of this almost death rock presented here. the build from the slower throb of the more doom tinged riff into a blackened stomp is more organic on "Born of the Wrong Blood". I'll round this up to a 9 and seriously consider moving it over onto the iPod as it has a very dark mood, and some solid songwriting. No samples were available, the clip below will give you an idea what these guys are about.