Review: Black Royal “The Summoning Pt. 2”

Black Royal “The Summoning Pt. 2”

Let’s get one thing out of the way: I don’t like death ‘n’ roll. I consider it at best an unnecessary subgenre and at its worst an abomination. But boy, do these guys sound awesome. Black Royal is hailing from Finland, still freshly formed back in 2013 has released their second EP The Summoning Pt. 2 which we are reviewing here.

The Summoning Pt. 2 EP works as a continuation from the last release as the title would suggest, diving deeper into darkness and damnation, musically and lyrically.

The production is done fantastically; its heavy, clear and every instrument is handled in great balance. Black Royal sounds like a cooler younger brother of Entombed, with much more groove, catchy riffs and tempos. Vocals are a bit varied; from clean patterns to growls and something in the middle. But vocals are anything but predictable, fortifying the songs into mammoths that they are. The solos are included in almost every song and they sound great, nothing fancy but filling up some holes in the songs, devils forbid that these guys have a dull moment in their tracks. The stand-out guitar solo is definitely in their last song Demonspawn which almost comes out of nowhere and captures your attention for the reminder of the song.

Lyrics are very much Venom style, which pretty much fits in the overall evil vibe of the whole EP and avoids being a cliché. Mostly thanks to the way they are delivered.

There are a lot of stand outs in this EP but one that really captures my attention and replay button is Reclaim the Throne. The song in a way works as a hymn of the band, with great growing vibe, slow and heavy rhythm with a killer acoustic and keyboard parts near the end which just fucking owns my stereo.

The Summoning Pt. 2 is one of those EPs that have the strength of an entire album, no filler-all killers. The band is young but has so much to show for. This might be the Entombed for the next generation.

Originally written for Festcamper.