BATTLE DAGORATH: "Ancient Wraith"

Coldness, that prevailing theme of a myriad of black metal albums, is also the main component on Battle Dagorath’s second album Ancient Wraith, a freezing 70-minute package of harhs black metal that has its ups and downs.

As soon as the synth-filled introduction ”Spirits of Winter Darkness” is over, the 12-minute ”Empire of Imperial Shadows” attacks with steady tremolo picked guitar lines laden with something mysterious and evil. The vocals I find very reminiscent of Striborg, in that there’s a great deal of distortion and delay used, making it all sound a little unnatural. Speaking of which, the drums are programmed as well, although it’s pretty well hidden in the harsh soundscape of the album. Yet at times the machinery hihat hits can get a little irritating, anyway.

Compositionally, Ancient Wraith is pretty much in balance throughout, never properly amazing me but admittedly there are some quite damn hypnotizing moments, such as on the 14-minute ”Kingdom of Black Abyss” that has a really sweet mid-tempo section towards the end, melancholic, ringing guitar melodies being picked with a fitting synth mat in the background, making a really effective atmosphere. ”Ancient Spectre of Oblivion” will undoubtedly divide opinions, being a 19-minute monster of pure ambient and drone. I find it fitting to the album’s theme though the length becomes its obvious glitch.

By no means is Ancient Wraith a mandatory purchase but it does deliver some authentic sounding black metal coldness, hence deserving a full three star score, also due to some of the majestic highlight moments in a few corners of the album. Perhaps with a little more organic production and more innovative compositions Battle Dagorath could next time conjure up a truly great release.

3 / 5

CALDERA: "Mithra"

On their second full-length offering Mithra, French Caldera delivers rather intriguing, repetitive, murky doom metal that meets with the climaxes of post-metal progressions, and all this wholly instrumental. The album consists of two tracks that run for over 15 minutes a piece, creating a fitting total playing time for a style that could easily turn into boredom.

But luckily Mithra is far from anything tiresome, though it does require an acquired taste. If you can’t handle chorus-free music without constant twists, Mithra is a dead end. But for me, a lover of repetition - thanks to many hypnotizing black metal albums - and purely instrumental music - thanks to a bunch of great post-rock albums - this record is a great listen. Starting calmfully with ”Lithogenitvs”, the song soon after builds up to simple yet addictive distorted guitar lines with steady drum beats behind, and after a while I’m surprised the song already fades out. ”Sacrificivm” continues then, with a tad more discordance in the melody department, at times reminding me of the lunacy of Deathspell Omega, yet never being technically challenging or fast at all.

Mithra is, all in all, a mesmerizing album that might not be entirely original, but a very fine album that requires close attention; otherwise it could turn into worthless background noise. The production here is full sounding, all instruments well in the picture. Good running time with adventurous music and no annoying features whatsoever makes an album that doesn’t change my life but what will receive listens from me fairly frequently now. Mithra is a recommended piece for post-metal fans who enjoy slow tempos and doomy sound.

3.5 / 5

ABACINATE: "Genesis"

Although I’m not the biggest fan of the musical styles presented on various albums I get to review, I’m still able to spot talent, and that I do find from Abacinate’s second full-length Genesis, a real mixed bag of influences.

For the most part, the album is technical death metal, but every now and then the vocals are pure hardcore / metalcore, and at times the music flirts with more apparent melody. For instance, the two-part ”Laughing in the Dark” goes into rather progressive territories, the first part having a surprisingly calmful and melodic ending, then suddenly bursting into metal on the second part. Personally, I really don’t dig the hardcore vocal output, but it does bring me back to my younger years when Biohazard was one of my favourite bands. The hardcore elements aren’t something I would listen to nowadays, but in the middle of all the solidly executed death metal, it’s bearable.

The production is definitely worth meantioning here: it’s very clear and heavy. And modern. That migh become a problem for someone, because Genesis doesn’t quite have the filthy morbidity of old school death metal when it comes to atmosphere. I prefer the latter but I do admit that the production here is done admirably anyways, fitting to the band’s tight style that only gains from the very sharp sound.

As anyone can derive from the above, Genesis isn’t the sort of death metal I truly enjoy and listen to on a daily basis, but I find the music - much thanks to the ass kicking production - effective to the extent that I’d call the album a successful release. Genesis is a recommendable piece for those who enjoy their brutal and technical death metal with a little bit of -core. Also, remember to give these compositions enough time, they aren’t that digestible after all, but do reward eventually.

2.5 / 5

MAIM: "Deceased to Exist"

Swedes and their old school death metal. Read no further if those words already sicken you, but if you are one of those who still check out new bands playing what Dismember, Entombed and Grave did twenty years ago, proceed: Maim’s second album Deceased to Exist, released during the first days of this year, is a very solid piece in that certain style.

And lucky for them, they have not utilized the biggest clichés available, namely the buzzing guitar sound; instead, the guitar sound here is just purely heavy and deep, and so are all the other instruments as well, much thanks to the highly reverberating production that is a definite plus feature of Deceased to Exist, creating an abyssal atmosphere.

Also, the band knows how to slow down and still sound utterly menacing: while songs like the opener ”Gravedigger Sacrifice” attack with moderately high speed, there are, for instance, the Archgoat esque sections of ”Morbid Desecration” and the wholly slow-tempo, doomy ”Crematory” that belong to Deceased to Exist’s finest moments. Another highlight worth mentioning is the closer "Screams of the Mutilated" that, even if otherwise unsurprising, ends the album in sinister solos and spoken samples in the background.

Towards the end of the album the similarity of the songs becomes a little dulling, but nonetheless I can say that Deceased to Exist is a fine old school death metal album with convincing heaviness and darkness. After all, it's not every day when you come across this well done production job combined with crushing, evil compositions. Fans of the style won’t waste their time at all checking out this album, I’m sure.

3 / 5

VALEFOR: "After the Sad Hours"

Valefor’s earlier appearance on the Passages from the Dark Side split didn’t leave me wholly convinced but I was still enough eager (and completist) to look into After the Sad Hours, a new demo of depressive black metal and doom metal combined, unleashed in early March.

And I’m afraid that nothing has truly changed: after the mournful clean guitar intro ”Nowhere”, the title track begins with a slow and a moment later highly distorted guitar picking and soon after the drum machine kicks in with the dooming, slow beats that perhaps nod to Forgotten Tomb’s direction. The drum machine is a little cheap for sure, but luckily the low-speed style makes it tolerable. Vocals are once again delivered in the vein of Mortualia’s debut and Heartless, in practice meaning very high-pitched wailing with no rasp. This might turn off some but I find it enough fitting, and at least it’s not the most common style used.

All the three black/doom metal songs of After the Sad Hours wander in the very same, despondent and hopeless spirit, making the demo atmospherically a success in what it’s supposed to evoke, but otherwise quite a stagnant whole of absolutely nothing surprising; a whole where it’s musically hard to differentiate the tracks. ”The Embrace the Pain” provides the best moments on the album, daring to go to some rather fast sections in its almost 9-minute running time. ”Helpess Souls” is similar to the intro, being an interlude of mere clean guitar, and then there’s the doomiest ”No Place for Hope” that ends the demo finely but predictably.

In a nutshell, After the Sad Hours is a general (generic?) piece of depressive black metal which might appeal to the most hardcore followers of the subgenre, but for others it is a lackluster 32 minutes. I incline toward the latter people even if I see some potential in there, if only he would come up with something more original next time.

2 / 5

WARFIELD: "Trivmvirat"

With a band name like Warfield I expected to be exposured to some fast war metal bursts when I’d put on their latest offering Trivmvirat, but what we’ve got here instead is rather thoughtful yet violent black metal, not that far from Watain, and what surprises me even more is that this band hails from Mexico and not from the northern soil.

Trivmvirat kicks off with ”The Initiate”, introducing maliciously ringing high-pitched guitar picking tones with a steady drumbeat behind until the song fires to more rapid speeds, semi-low growls echoing on top. ”Divinity” attacks with belligerent blast beats right from the start, and there’s a sweet death metalish lick in the rhythm that makes it stand apart from a generic and meaningless blasting. ”Trinity” continues in the vein of the previous tracks, concluding the original EP with an atmosphere that evokes also hopelessness, thanks to that fantastic, vaguely melancholic riff in there that makes the song the highlight of the EP.

The upcoming re-release also comprises three live and one rehearsal track. The live material is sound-wise of quite low quality, so audiophiles stand aside: compared to the rather professionally (yet tastefully) produced original EP material, this is really rusty and low-fidelity, offering little to someone who wants to hear all details perfectly. The sound is a mess where cymbals (and the outstandingly monstrous drumming in general) dominate, evil riffs and vocals more in the background. ”Pestilencia” is an instrumental rehearsal track of rehearsal audio quality, indeed. Personally I think that vocals are an important role in Warfield’s music, hence I find this track a little worthless here: with vocals and more worked production, this could turn into a great song.

Trivmvirat is a positive experience in the end, mostly thanks to the original songs and not the four bonus offerings that might have little worth to many listeners. Fans of utterly violent black metal (à la Infernal War) with a touch of versatile compositional structures are recommended to look into Trivmvirat, an EP that’s absolutely nothing new but where all the good ideas of savage black metal are put to very fine use.

3.5 / 5

RAVENWOODS: "Enfeebling the Throne"

On their second full-length assault, Ravenwoods unleashes quite a mixed bag of influences from various genres - in good and bad. While the band seems to focus primarily on death metal - be it blackened death metal, technical and brutal death metal or even melodic death metal, yeah, all that is here - the band also incorporates calmful passages of traditional instruments into the mix that makes, all in all, a decent but the same time a tad incorehent 41 minutes.

Primarily, Enfeebling the Throne blasts not unlike Behemoth, including precise and monstrous drumming and very similar growls, and on these tracks I wish the band would have added something more original into the compositions - no matter how crushing these tracks nonetheless are, mostly thanks to the heavy and massive production. Yes, there’s a lot of Nile esque mysterious acoustic moments within songs (”Breathless Solace”, ”Torture Palace” and ”Upheaven-Subterranean” to name a few) but they sound a little apart from the metal, just suddenly appearing out of nowhere. The traditional elements are put to their best use at the outro ”Azab-I Mukaddes” which is entirely in that style, giving that side of the band more time so that it isn’t just a random one-minute interlude between all the chugging riffs and blast beats.

The latter part of the album starts to reveal the melodic death metal which, I surprisingly think, is the most interesting half of the record. The cleanly sung chorus of ”Stay” could appear on an MTV poprock song but I find it done tastefully, and then there’s ”The Fading Trace” that also flirts with that certain Gothenburg sound. All this makes, indeed, a bit random sounding whole of different ideas. With a little more coherency and better mixing of the styles together, Ravenwoods could have produced a fantastic record. What is left now is an album with various good ideas that just don’t all work together so well. Nonetheless, we are not dealing with a lackluster record here, so that those more into death metal than yours truly can appreciate Enfeebling the Throne a lot more.

2.5 / 5