Horna: "Askel Lahempana Saatanaa"

The Finnish black metal band features members of Behexen and Sargeist formed in 93 as Shadowed and while they have a slew of splits and. E.ps this is their eighth studio album. Held in high regard on many a metal message board, these guys have few bells and whistles and play pretty raw straightforward black metal. Most of the songs ur together for me so in breaking it down to look at by a track by track basis will be a little weird. It opens with the title track which is at a more Burzum pace, the lo if drum sound paints it into that sort of corner, the vocals are angry but one dimensional and the guitar panned hard and fuzzy on either side. It doesn't take them long to run into some big sloppy blast beats and drunken battle moans. I like the momentum it gains as one of the guitars picks the chords out little more melodically. The more bestial the howl the more variance the vocal haven leeks of scathing intensity, some times they sound like a Neanderthal who is making a complaint to the suicide hotline. Do they play this with conviction that I am convinced of...yes are they breaking any new ground ...no.

Their is that classic black metal drone to the ambiance of the feedback in the way the guitars ring out and this is what lulls me into multiple listens. Sure "Kunmi Herralle, Kuninkaalle" sounds like a temper tantrum in motion. The riff a minute in hits a trashy sweet spot for me. The temper tantrum is tempered with a little groove to head band to where the same emotion allowed to run rampant on the next song sounds like a method out cookie monster trying to explain something during an anxiety attack. There are traces of death metal in their sound whether they like it or not mainly on the very straight snare patterns and the more a typical blast default settings. The drums do have a bit of thunder here and there.

"Yhdeksas Portti" begins to sound like the song before it and in side the blasts I hear the life expectancy of this album dismiss as I try to find what is separating this songs aside from a riff here and there a Knute and a half in. The vocals become more one dimensional as this album continues on and I find my self realizes this only on the fourth song. It makes me wonder if I'm asking too much and why these guys are held I such high regard and what does this say of the people who hold them there.

The riffs at the beginning of "Ei Aikaa Kyyneleille" could be more boring and repitious if they tried , the riffs are sinking in the production as the guitar looks for the openings as the drums gives them with the base lost somewhere on the mixing board. There are riff here and their but lone riffs doesn't makes a song . They just make a riff which is only as good as what it is connected to.

The ugh and the punch of the bass before it disappears are the only thing that separates "Karsimyksin Vuoltu" for. The other songs. It loses it blackness to blandness, the tremolo parts touch on a few wood notes here and there. Theres the feeling you are rolling through waves on the Baltic ocean and stumbling drunkenly across a battle feil. It those moments only come when the songs one cool part surfaces.

"Aamutahden Pyhimys" Is more straight ahead blasting I have heard a thousand times and unless.ayerdwith something intresting or transitioning into some intresting ns become boring to me when just left it it's own devices, I guess this is where the connect. Etween black metal and punk kids lies, we like boring repetitive fast playing which requires. I songwriting and little musicianship. The gods forbid it would be something you would have to think about.

The album closes with " Pala Tai Palvele" and "Ota Omaksei, Luoksesi" the song are pretty interchangeable and tread indentical ground fast blast tremolo pick , the latter goes into a little more of a gallop but. Itching to broaden their range any more than. A half step here and there.

I'm not the biggest fan of modern bands coming across raw and unproduced , though Cultes Des Ghoules certainly pulled it off well and when I have them in my iPod there isn't really room in my iPod to clutter it up with this sort of thing, so I'll give this album a four as its good white noise in the background and I guess a riff that stands out here and there is good enough for some people.

Ragnarok : Malediction

Ok nothing but black metal reviews for the rest of the year so starting them off with Ranarok's newest.

While only familiar with these guys when they have popped up on my last fm, decided to give their new one a shot, while I was under the impression these guys were old school raw black metal there is a lot more thrash and death influences than I might have anticipated and they waste no time incorporating them into the blast fest "Blood ofsaints " even has a few Deicide moments in the vocal patterns, the vocals which are much more discernible than you would think, giving them a more death metal feel, but in the days when the lines of what was death and what was black metal were more blurred so pre second wave. The first impression though is this is going to be pretty straight and relying on sheer speed of attack.

"Demon in my view" keeps up the albums established pace and is run of the mill until the chorus , I like the place ment of the vocals even if I think using the title in the lyrics of the chorus can be a little cheesy and it's up for debate if that's indeed the chorus as there isn't a lot of variance, though at this speed it gets a little sloppy on the ears when it comes to distinguishing parts. They do a similar thing on " Necromantic summoning ritual" though here is when I begin to here some of the phrasing and almost major tones sound like ultra sped up power metal, so these guys have a Hammerfall album or two they are hiding on the tour bus and their Deicide collection is out in plain sight, though it adds to the chorus leading into where the chorus should be as it has a thrashing attack.

They stay very consistent in tempo going into "Divide et Impera" almost to a fault , though the bass is up in the mix and power metal undertones are helping the gallop and the mid tempo accented riff is a dramatic and well timed change before going back to their trusted blasties. The growl begins to get a little monotonous at this point as it keeps at a midrange rasp, there are the more Deicide accent which makes their focus on where they go rather than any variation in pitch.

The opening riff of "Pro patri mori" should have been riffed out a little more before we descended into more of the same though like the previous song it slows down into some syncopated punches with some melody to them before dishing out more of the same thing they have been beating your ass with thought there's a little Morbid angel in this riff that cuts through the blasts about midway through making this on of the albums stronger songs

I like it when they lead with the viking riffs on "Dystocratic" and think they need to include more as they are more untouched with that current than Amon Amarth. The rest of the song begins to feel like these tempos are a cop out Becuase they lack better ideas which from the opening riff I know it's not true maybe just less inspired when it comes to arrangements. By the time we get to "Iron Cross" we get the point that this speed is the only troo kvlt tempo though the little breakdown ey throw in their is a reprieve just too much of the same and as much as I love the dark one the lyric" Satan has come to stay " makes him sound like puff the magic dragon.

" the eleventh seal" is starting to sound like a continuation of the previous song, though it thrashes it's accents harder. This drummer is no doubt a machine among machines and gets credit for making some of these riffs more interesting , where if he had been a monotone blaster this album would have been ruined. Any metal drummer who are into over the top playing need to listen to this album like its a drummer clinic and add tow points to the final score. But superlative drumming aside the song "Fade into Obscurity" is what I'm beginning to think this album will do on my iPod. The riff on that song is mean as a angry bag of fucks and defies my theory this album running out of steam.

"Sword of Damocles" stood out for me from the first listen as the hook in the first part of the verse section sounds like a King Diamond bridge riff, or "So far so good " era Megadeth. Sure they revert to blast now ask questions later , leaving the cool riff all by its lonesome to cry in its corpse paint. The execution is flawless, no one has a bad performance though the vocals are one dimensional and I guess this is what the death metal band Daath would sound like if the went black metal and stopped soloing, the drums carry the connect the dots metal riffage. One of the best drumming performances on a metal album this year helps bump this one up to a 7 as the lack of innovation and melody would bore me after a whole and even though I recognize this is good for what it is I foresee it getting bumped from my hard drive to free up space more something more experimental that actually speaks to me, but as new gets scarce this time of year it might be what you need to hold you for right now.