This is an album with a few good ideas, even though it’s overall not that special. It’s a nice blend of black and thrash metal that’s somewhat enjoyable without having anything exceptional.
The first track, Slain, is a good indicator of that. There’s no intro to it, it directly attacks with riffs and vocals, and while it’s not terribly memorable, you can discern a few good things, like the rapid-fire vocal delivery, which kinds sounds like old Cradle of Filth, and the equally fast riffs and drumming. But it relies a little too much on overused black metal riffs to make a really big impression.
The album in general does tend to use a lot of overused black metal motifs, and around the end, the songs tend to fall back on those old clichés, for lack of inspiration. This is what happens with Among the Remains, which starts with more efforts put into it, a lot of energy and a threatening riff, but has an overly long and much blander ending. That said, it’s still an enjoyable, heavy and energetic track, that could be considered black/thrash or black/heavy metal.
I wouldn’t exactly say that the album is bad, there are some good ideas, but a lot of them start good and end somewhat more bland and less creative. Tracks like Second of the Season, A Fist From Within and Accidental Suicide are pretty good death metal tracks with doomy influences. I think the band is more competent at death metal songs than black metal ones. Only problem is that these songs seem to never end…
But others really make up for the rest of the album. Blurred Visions is one of the most creative tracks on the album, using more death metal-inspired vocals with an interesting evil-sounding rasp, sometimes delivered fast and sometimes spoken in a more monotone style. It also has a nice drum solo in the middle. Wonders has a nice energy and an evil sounding main riff and vocal performance, despite its slightly repetitive tendencies. There’s also those strange interludes, C.E.E and The Defleshed. The first one consists of rain, then a heavy riff, then rain again. Defleshed, however, is a somewhat basic, but at least short, fast and angry death metal track. I could also mention Each Dawn I Die and its slower and sinister tone.
This is the kind of album that you have to listen to more than once to enjoy it. Yes, there are some good songs here, but most of the album is a little bland. For now, it doesn’t have much to distinguish itself from the hundreds of other black/death metal albums that get released every month. But when the band does put in more effort, they show that they have some potential and could rise above the rest someday. Check that one out, if you’re curious, but don’t expect anything all that great.
Release date: December 28th, 2020
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