DESOLATE SHRINE: "Tenebrous Towers"

Hammer of Hate is primarily, if not even exclusively, known for its black metal releases, but Desolate Shrine’s Tenebrous Towers is a change to that paradigm for the first time: what we’ve got here is some damn massive and crushing old school death metal. However, considering the morbid atmosphere and utter evilness of the record, it’s no longer that weird to see it being released through a black metal label. And, admittedly, there’s also some flirts with black metal within this monster of an album.

The very first thing to notice on Tenebrous Towers is indeed the sound that is just huge: the murkiness and relatively slow tempo (in general) nods to doom metal’s direction every now and then. Perhaps the riffs don’t delve in total uniqueness but the way they combine the sheer crushing element of death metal with black metalish menace is impressive - the first song ”The Smell of Blood and Iron” is already a fine example of that, and also one of my favourities of the whole. ”Crushing Darkness” churns like some sort of a flesh grinding machinery, and later incorporates some brooding doom bell atmospheres to the mix, another highlight of the bunch.

Handled by two members, the vocals deserve a mention too. You could think of Uncreation’s Dawn’s and Uncelestial’s Diabolik who also shifts from deep growls to higher pitched shrieks. The similarities don’t stop at the vocals though, as I’m seeing something familiar in the guitar ideas as well, so Tenebrous Towers is definitely recommendable to the fans of those bands - and I do happen to love those bands, so logically Desolate Shrine has hit the rights spots for me. Kick ass riffage with a lot of occult darkness, that is Tenebrous Towers in a nutshell, and this nutshell works like magic. No need for hesitations if it sounds like your deal, too.

4 / 5

VERGE: "Sex & Violence"

Throughout recent years, Verge has remained as one of my favourite bands, starting with Hatemagic from 2008 and continuing with the 2010 split with Blood Red Fog, Because It’s Wrong. The band’s ability to be so authentically ominous, sick and still beautiful at the same time is mesmerizing, not to forget at all the occult wisdom shining in the lyrical department. Needless to say, expectations for Sex & Violence have been enormous, but luckily I am not disappointed even if I’d be wary to call this better than the album from a couple of years back.

After initial listen, a clear change can be spotted. While Hatemagic had adventurous and wild compositions like ”Assimilation” where different riffs were fired constantly, Sex & Violence is stagnant compared to that - and this is not in a bad way. This album is torturous, repetitive, trance-inducing, atmospheric, and the first track ”Chains” is already to show that: a brooding riff is being repeated as the basis of the song while Wrong spews the lyrics. The song’s power is in the culminating guitar solos that the song is full of in the end, a real beauty of a song. ”Death’s Coitus” goes into utterly maniacal vocal performances but the oppressive repetition is there too, only to continue on the more saddened ”On the Verge”.  The centerpiece ”Pride & Vanity”, clocking at almost thirteen minutes, is the epitome of this aura of emptiness, of lost hope.

If the lyrics are left without a read, the listener will probably miss all the point of Sex & Violence’s deliberate oppression: the album reeks of desperation on the occult path to higher knowledge and godhood. On ”Chains”, the protagonist faces the principle of Satan, ’a fiery serpent’, ’a sphinx’, the one behind the tribulations of man. The sphinx asks which path the protagonist will choose in life, and as he says ’I choose both and neither’, the sphinx returns to the ’womb underneath’, and the cycle of samsara continues. ”Death’s Coitus”, then, is a truly impressive rant on human lusts (’I am a god chained to a sewer / my whole being seduces me so can I cut it off’).

”On the Verge” is at the desperation at its fullest, the protagonists mentioning that he knows too much of life to ignore the responsibilities of every man, but he might no longer be able to do what is required from him. This culminates in the last paragraph in which he proclaims that even if he won't fall and instead rises to higher levels of existence, someone else will fall anyway, and the whole world falls with him. The Sex & Violence track trilogy of ”Lust”, ”Hate” and ”Pride” goes into the album’s main subject most profoundly, already apparent in the very first paragraph of ”Lust”: ’The pressure to elevate is now so intense that it often destroys what was meant to be lifted’. One certain paragraph on ”Hate” condenses the album’s theme quite perfectly: ’Why must the highest force bleed out of the lowest channel? My love for the immortal results in sex & violence’. In other words, no matter how he tries to elevate to true gnosis, it always results to acts of a bestial man, without hope of getting away from it: ’Whatever I do now, it seems impossible to escape from this machinery’.

The trilogy analyzed above, however, does not musically stand as high as the songs before it do. All the way through the first five tracks, including the wholly instrumental synth-piece ”Persistence in Failure”, Sex & Violence is one hell of an experience, but ”Lust”, ”Hate”, and ”Pride” don’t quite go as far at musical pleasure. They are fine tracks for sure, but the most I’m astonished that why is there a distortion effect on Wrong’s vocals? He’s most certainly one of the best black metal vocalists out there with its inhuman screams and pitches, so this cheap option does confuse me. This trilogy is the only reason why I am reluctant to go for a higher rating. And do not get me wrong, the music on these three tracks is indeed good, but in relation to the almost mindblowing tracks before them, they tend to pale in comparison. All in all, Sex & Violence is a successful continuation that will most likely keep growing in time, spin after spin. For now, four stars can be given without hesitation - that already says something about how good material we’re dealing with here.

4 / 5

DEATH STRIKE: "Fuckin' Death"

Death metal in 1985 might not be remembered by anything else than Possessed’s Seven Churches, but there’s actually more that should be known, namely Paul Speckmann and the demo Fuckin’ Death from his band Death Strike. Though the 1985 release was just a minor tape demo, it was compiled six years later to a CD release with another four songs, once again named Fuckin’ Death. Even this release didn’t garner as much attention as it probably should have gotten, but perhaps it will happen now that Dark Descent Records has put it out, in this era of enormous old school and retro worship.

Of course, Fuckin’ Death isn’t pure death metal as we understand it today. You could think of Venom, Hellhammer and Discharge to depict the album to yourself: thrashing, almost punky and hardcore old school metal in a charming eighties production. The four songs of the original tape are the true highlights of the whole: muddy guitars executing that simple yet sweet power chord hell with occasional screeching solos, Speckmann’s harsh (and very harsh were they for that time) vocals really upfront in the mix, and drums steadily battering those primitive blasts.

”The Final Conflict” begins the second part of the album, or more like a compilation, presenting the material from 1991, starting with acoustic guitars, soon after bursting into menacing death / thrash metal riffage with a fuller and bassier sound behind. This material isn’t as crushing as the first, yet presents some very solid old school metal. As a bonus on the recent Dark Descent re-release, there’s another slew of four tracks added to the end, really scruffy sounding live rehearsal tracks that will mostly serve the most hardcore fans of the band. I must admit, though, that the extremely raw sound only strengthens the band’s dark aura here.

Fuckin’ Death isn’t the most memorable collection of songs from those years, but definitely worth of the attention of anyone into the first days of death metal or, in this case, proto death metal. There’s simply no reason to keep Death Strike hidden anywhere as it’s a convincing piece of metal history, even if not the most essential of all. No need for doubts (or some damn MP3 samples), old school metal listeners can make a blind buy in this particular case.

3 / 5

IPERYT: "No State of Grace"

Industrial black metal can be done magnificently, just think of some The Axis of Perdition and Blut Aus Nord releases, but most often it seems to fall into ultimate mediocrity. Iperyt’s second full-length No State of Grace is an inconveniently clear case of the latter category, presenting eleven tracks of ultra fast and rather bland industrial black / death metal.

The main glitch here is how the band tries to be extreme and shocking. This comes evident already via reading the songtitles like ”Scars Are Sexy” and, delving into the music, the aspect of pretentiousness comes apparent in e.g. the exaggerated drum machine speeds. Combine the 3000 bpm audio software beats to slower and remote riffs and ”let’s fuck the life from behind” (straight quote) lyrics, and I’m quite embarassed overall.

I hate to go all the way ranting an album like this, but the truth is that there’s little content on No State of Grace that would deserve the attention of even industrial metal fans. The first track, self-titled one, culminates to some nice, almost epic melodies, but that’s pretty much all I can get out of No State of Grace. Unless the bands starts to focus more on the actual content instead of the mere extreme and ’oh so violent’ attitude it has, I hold no further interest in the band. Technically, there’s no limitations for potential as the band does keep the songs together well enough, but there’s just got to be something more than that’s just trying to horrify the listener - and then even fail at it!

1 / 5

HRIZG: "Inferno"

It took about three months from Hrizg to unleash another beast of his. In May, this one-man black metal project offered Anthems to Decrepitude which was an enjoyable ride through ancient, cavernous soundscapes, and now Moribund Cult is about to release Inferno, a five track EP of similar music, running for almost 30 minutes which means that it’s almost like another full-length.

While Anthems to Decrepitude was sound-wise somewhat feeble (though I grew to really like the sound), Inferno has more professional production behind it, but not harassingly so. The new sound gives more power to the compositions that don’t seem so remote anymore. Now that both drums and guitars have more flesh around them, Inferno sounds a lot stronger than its predecessor.

Musically, I still find it somewhat hard to compare Hrizg to any other band. Not to mislead you, it’s not that the band is anything truly unique, quite the opposite as the songs are rooted in rather traditional black metal, but there’s something in the sound that makes its depiction challenging. There’s the usual black metal discordance added to the vaguely death metalish murkiness, and there’s a lot of lead melodies fluctuating between melancholy and menace, not to forget the careful use of synth mats in various places, and the moderately low-pitched vocals.

The most impressive feature of Inferno is how it sounds as authentically old and crypt-like as Anthems to Decrepitude, it verges being magical! It doesn’t kill the fact that there’s plenty of not-that-outstanding riffage therein, but the atmosphere is admittedly well done. Considering that this is a rather short EP than the almost exhausting Anthems full-length, I would consider Inferno a better whole than the album. Not much, but just about enough to deserve a half star more.

3.5 / 5

GRAVEHILL: "When All Roads Lead to Hell"

Gravehill is another contender of uncompromising death / thrash / black metal, now releasing their second full-length When All Roads Lead to Hell via Dark Descent Records. No bullshit, this is a soundtrack to all that is solely evil - in good and in bad.

Indeed, the Satanic rampage seems incessant here. At first I’m not harassed by it at all, quite the opposite actually as the first four or five proper songs after the intro kick some serious ass, most notably the highlight ”Extinction” that has the album’s probably only proper lead melodies, a nice ominous sounding addition into the thrashing hell. Vibes of e.g. early Bathory and Venom records run through the album’s veins, and the way Gravehill fuses the three genres (or, in fact, how they play like in those times when the distinction between the three wasn’t yet so clear) is admirable. But after the title track ends, there’s clear stagnation, and there’s only the bookend ”Consvmed by Rats” and its brooding acoustic guitars that make amends.

One feature of When All Roads Lead to Hell is particularly behind the album’s lackluster songs, and it’s the production. While it sounds authentically old school, it’s also quite feeble: drums not having enough power amongst the guitars that also sound somewhat watered down. Overall tightness is lacking here, and a crispier sound could have made the album shine a lot brighter.

When All Roads Lead to Hell will appeal to many fans of the genres’ old school traditions, and in fact it has already garnered positive media attention quite successfully. I might not agree with all the positive comments, because all in all there’s a shitload of other similar albums released on an almost daily basis and this one doesn’t happen to belong to the very best of them. Among the masses of this kind of albums, there’s a lot to choose from and When All Roads Lead to Hell might not be my pick. If only the production was fixed and there were more prominent material on the latter half of the record, then we could consider it again.

2.5 / 5

SACRILEGIOUS IMPALEMENT: "II - Exalted Spectres"

Many of my Finn acquaintances tend to hype Sacrilegious Impalement a lot, much thanks to the band’s major debut Cultus Nex released a couple of years ago. But I was never truly impressed as the evident Watain worship, combined to a soulless Necromorbus studio sound, lacked all necessary power and feeling of danger. Now the band is back with II - Exalted Spectres for which I had higher hopes, but I’m getting similar vibes as I got with Cultus Nex. There’s the discordance, the evil and profoundly Satanic atmosphere, and at times the faster bursts of enraged violence, but when it is all executed so carefully in a professional production, where does reside all sense of truthful hazard and unpredictability?

Don’t get me totally wrong: at what the band does on Exalted Spectres, it does it with skill. Not every band out there is capable of creating something as massive as this album, and not everyone can pull out vocals like Hellwind Inferion in his possessed, mid-range screams, most perfectly delivered on ”Aletheia” which is sung in native tongue, making it sound more authentic and emotional than e.g. the common ’six six six’ proclamations in English. The twirling tremolo melodies are a pleasure to hear as well but unfortunately they provide nothing out of the ordinary and, honestly speaking, almost none of the melodies on Exalted Spectres could be said to be really memorable afterwards. It’s all enjoyable during the course of listening, yet not sticking to head afterwards, no matter how many spins I give the album.

The mediocrity is probably at its worst on a track like ”Omnipotens Aeterne” which almost practically repeats the previous songs, but there are also highlights worth mentioning: ”Woods in a Solitary Soul” is one personal favourite of mine, almost three of its five minutes being distortionless, lurking menace with guitars and whispered vocals. Then there’s ”Grand Funeral Convoy” which is a very fitting bookend song, ending the album with the record’s best song progressions, culminating into some sweet lead melody. But what comes to the more common pieces of Watain esque black metal, à la ”Blessed to Resist” or ”Wolves of the Black Moon”, I can’t say they really move me in a direction or another.

If you were one of those who found Cultus Nex good, then there’s of course no need to hesitate at all at checking out Exalted Spextres. I am willing to bet that those will love this one as well, as even I am able to hear that at least they haven’t gotten worse at all. Exalted Spectres is an album I can always listen to and enjoy it to a certain extent, but does it comprise heart-wrenching, goosebumps inducing material? No, none that I am aware of so far, though I’ve tried. Decent black metal combining the aggression of more traditional bands with the ominous atmosphere of more modern bands. That is what I hear Exalted Spectres to be to the bone.

2.5 / 5

EARTHRIDE: "Something Wicked"

On their third full-length Something Wicked, Earthride most certainly knows how to play some damn rocking and laid-back doom metal. Right here you’ve got Black Sabbath going more stoner and sludgy and, of course, with a lot of tasty groove. Something Wicked isn’t what I would generally listen to, as many know that I’d usually prefer the harsh and cold landscapes of fierce black metal,  but there’s no way of denying this album’s simple power.

What comes to the production, Something Wicked sounds like it was recorded underneath a layer of mud, at least the buzzing bass and guitars that have a very dark and muffled tone. The sound is perfect for these groovy, ass kicking riffs straight from the 70s. Vocals go fittingly to that decade as well, including masculine groans and rasps, yet at times delivering fully clean vocals. The latter are most perfectly delivered on ”Zodiac”, a favourite of mine, that also beautifully flirts with latent melancholy, yet still retaining the kick ass aspect all the way through.

The laid-back atmosphere makes Something Wicked quite an easy listen - sometimes perhaps even too much so as on the latter half of the album my mind may wander off from the music due to the simplicity that might get tiresome during the course of 52 minutes - but, evidently, the album isn’t meant to be anything too extraordinary nor challening. It’s all about the crushing riffs and solos, and I see absolutely no reason why a lover of old school doom metal and, heck, even fans Phil Anselmo or Lenny, would not love Something Wicked. Consider yours truly impressed, albeit too exhausted by the total length. I don’t know how many albums of this kind I could tackle with joy, but as a rather newbie to the style, I find Something Wicked a convincing record.

3.5 / 5

ENTRENCHED: "Preemptive Strike"

Entrenched is another US based war metal outfit, combining thrash and death metal to create a militant, savage piece of album self-released a couple of months ago. I’m easily reminded of the lately reviewed Spearhead, but we’re not exactly dealing with identical music.

Preemptive Strike never goes into utterly fast tempos, but successfully retains in relatively mid-paced speeds in which the simple power chord riffs do wonders. It is also much thanks to the rusty and upfront guitar tone that makes the palm-muted riff menace so ass kicking, even though the compositions aren’t that outstanding themselves. But what the band loses in unoriginal songwriting, it takes back in the sheer power of the instruments and production. This is what makes me return to the album moderately often: it sounds so good.

There are, however,  great songs as well, it’s not all about a frigging guitar tone. ”Bred to Kill”, ”ICBM” and ”Landbrecher 666” are an unbeatable string of crushing, belligerent tracks after which ”Frenzied Amputation” convincingly rumbles in the spheres of murky death metal. At this point, the singer’s low grunts are put to their best use. ”Anesthetic Death” regularly crawls with creepy guitar picking, a welcome feature after all the constant firing. The last three tracks, starting with ”Burnt and Destroyed”, are the least convincing tracks of the bunch, kind of stuck in place and not providing anything the songs before them hadn’t delivered already.

The album leaves a lot better aftertaste than many its contenders, though I would still be wary to go over three stars. If the stagnancy in the latter part of the album was fixed (heck, you could just remove them all the way and so you would have an awesome 6-track whole that would fittingly end after ”Anesthetic Death”), Preemptive Strike could even be among my favourite war metal records. A well-done album, and I am looking forward to hearing more from these guys.

3 / 5

TRILLION RED: "Two Tongues"

Huh, Trillion Red’s debut EP Two Tongues takes by surprise. With practically no expectations or ideas what it would sound like, this duo provides some very dark music that isn’t so easy to categorize, but I guess we could go with something like ambient, doom, black, prog and Mastodon influenced rock / metal, partially bringing to my mind the recently reviewed Dead Neon as well.

The four songs on Two Tongues are all quite intriguing individual pieces, so there’s certainly no shortage of adventurous music. At times it crushes with sheer power, sometimes confuses with unusual beats and mood shifts, and sometimes touches with latent melancholy - or all this together at the same time. And what best, it never sounds pretentious, but natural and emotional. The soundscape is massive as well, as there’s a plethora of different sounds to be found from the mix.

I am fond of the vocals as well which are mostly clean and ’unprofessional’ wailings, shouts and scream, it’s not the easiest style to depict, but once again you could think of Mastodon and you’re about on the right track. Is there anything negative to say about Two Tongues, then?  Not really anything negative, but of course not every second of the music is THAT good that it would deserve five stars, but I can’t go wrong with four stars at least. An innovative piece of art that is recommendable if you’re up for some avant-garde and experimental touch in your rock and metal.

4 / 5

BLOODTHIRST: "Żądza Krwi"

Bloodthirst has been churning out new releases - albeit mostly splits or similar ’minor’ outputs - for a decade already, but Żądza Krwi is my first exposure to the band. But who could have heard all these gazillion thrash/black metal bands, anyway? Better later than never, even if I’m not sure would I have missed much if I had not heard Żądza Krwi, a quite traditional blackened thrash metal EP.

The ingredients are simple: take the drum beats, guitar solos and overall attitude of thrash metal and mix it with menacing tremolo guitars, high-pitched screams and general harshness of black metal and there you have Żądza Krwi and its four tracks clocking at fifteen minutes at total, a fitting time for a musical experience so familiar already. And while a good release does not require originality, there’s not enough hooks on the EP to trigger my interest entirely. Bloodthirst plays well and is convincingly evil and rapid, but real masterpiece compositions are evidently missing.

An interesting feature are the vocals sung in Polish for the first time - apparently - in Bloodthirst’s history. I’d consider this as a definite plus, as the harsh sounding language adds to the atmosphere probably much better than the so often heard and harmless English. Production-wise, Żądza Krwi is quite bright but luckily with mandatory rawness. Composition-wise, as said, there’s not much to find from the EP, but the most hardcore followers of the Polish scene might want to look into the record, a record of solidly played black / thrash that does kick ass but also could have provided much more.

2.5 / 5

MORTUALIA: "Mortualia"

Albeit mostly known for his main projects Horna and Sargeist, Shatraug has a ton of various side projects. Of all those, Mortualia is the one focusing on desolate atmosphere, torturing repetition, dragging tempo, the vision of a hopeless future: in other words, depressive black metal. The self-titled debut was originally released back in 2007 but it is now getting a re-release treatment by Moribund Cult, though I am basing my review on the original Northern Sky Productions version of which I’ve possessed a copy for a couple of years already.

Mortualia doesn’t fall to the most common problems of depressive black metal. Whereas many contenders turn out to sound just pitiful in their angst, this album does not dwell in self-pity at all. This is cold, distant, murky, and with a great dose malicious melodies and riffs without any clichéd over-melodic tunes. The first monster, ”The Blue Silence” clocking at seventeen minutes, is probably the most melancholic piece of the bunch, followed by another similar track ”In Bleak Loneliness”, after which ”Cold and Grey” kicks in with murky menace: gone are the wistful sounds of the first tracks. The minimal ”Devoid of Warmth” is a strong addition to the whole, but pales in comparison to the last piece, ”Forgotten Soul”, of which beginning riff is so damn dramatic that it truly chills.

To elaborate the album’s sound further, you can probably already guess that Mortualia isn’t professionally produced, and that is only good. Both drums and guitars are quite remote sounding but without any unnecessary amounts of reverb. Shatraug’s vocals are very, very high-pitched and semi-clean wailings which might turn off some and, to be honest, I wasn’t very keen on them at first, but they’ve grown on me over the years. I still prefer his sound on the next full-length Blood of the Hermit on which he gets raspier, though.

If you’re looking for a proper and authentic piece of depressive black metal, I would recommend Mortualia. Perhaps it is not a cornerstone album of the subgenre, but a worthy addition to anyone’s collection who claims to be a fan of the style, as the ringing coldness and joy-killing desolation is surely to make an impact. In case the vocals are too much to bear, then look into Blood of the Hermit, and even that glitch has been then fixed.

4 / 5

ABRASIVE: "The Birth... Born in Sodom"

Amidst the myriad of old school death metal bands hailing the Swedish scene, Abrasive’s fourth full-length The Birth... Born in Sodom is refreshing to hear, even though it’s ultimately and strictly old school. But instead of the chainsaw guitars and graveyard stenches, here we’ve got an extremely muddy, confusing and dirty piece of death metal in the vein of Effigy of the Forgotten by Suffocation.

Deep grunts, downtuned guitar menace with occasional violent screeches, primitive drum sound (just listen to that snare!), not-that-careful execution of instruments, hysterical atmosphere... The list of successful features seems to see no end. Of course, The Birth... Born in Sodom isn’t really anything out of the ordinary, pretty much the opposite, but when a good sound production (some could disagree about that, considering it’s quite lo-fi) gets mixed with compositions that have just enough catchiness, yours truly is impressed in spite of all unoriginality.

The ’sexual perversions’ theme surrounding the album and the band in general might not be my cup of tea, but it’s not like you could decipher the lyrics anyway and, most importantly, the band doesn’t sound like a vapid porngrind group. They know what they’re doing here, assaulting with grand blasphemy from the beginning to the very end. The Birth... Born in Sodom is not to disappoint those who enjoy the band mentioned in the first paragraph, as long as you’re not expecting anything innovative.

3.5 / 5

HARM: "Demonic Alliance"

On their second major offering Demonic Alliance, Harm blasts quite common modern thrash metal, though with evident flirts with death metal, as at times the album rumbles like a Gojira record. But the main focus is on the rather fast thrash beats and power chord riffs, and these both mixed with a touch of semi-technicality (these aren’t that simple, nor old school, compositions) and a clear and tight production.

The only, though quite crucial, glitch of the album is its predictability throughout the 36 minutes: occasional lead melodies and solos do not count as anything really peculiar. So while I appreciate the tight and fast execution of instruments (which is probably the biggest plus in this album, these guys play damn nicely), there’s not enough interesting variation between the nine tracks of solidly executed metal. This is, however, just my personal opinion, as an album like Demonic Alliance isn’t the kind of music I usually listen to anyways, so it is to be kept in mind that these comments are coming from a person who would always prefer a little more devilish, old school and dirty sound in his thrash metal, something like Gräfenstein, for example.

Demonic Alliance’s aftertaste is decent. I’ve heard worse efforts in modern thrash, but also a slew of more convincing ones. The bonus DVD includes a video for ”Demon” and a bunch of more and less interesting extra footage that only a devoted Harm fan can truly enjoy to follow.  Demonic Alliance might not have been made for these ears, but it will reach and please the fans of the style.

2.5 / 5

FIDEI DEFENSOR: "Cognoscenti"

After the unsuccessful campaign initiated by the label Supernal Music that was originally going to release the album (with the little ’if’ that the album would have to sell out the whole run of 250 copies in preorders), Darker Than Black Records has taken care of Fidei Defensor’s debut album’s release since the preorder project failed and Supernal Music backed out.

My first thoughts after reading about the album was that it would be a feast on raw, uncompromising black metal occultism, but that is quite far from the truth; despite the overall harshness revolving around the album, Cognoscenti is more prominently beautiful, giving much emphasis to melancholic melody. Considering the first track ”Nvlli Expvgnabilis Hosti” and the beginning of the next one ”Veritas, Satana”, the album sounds like a delicate post-rock affair with all those reverby, fragile guitar pickings. It is not until the first five minutes or so are over when the distortion and metal kicks in, guitars fluctuating between wistful and ominous riffs and melodies, vocals having perhaps an unnecessary amount of effected distortion on them, and drums being programmed, though they sound decent enough.

From there on, throughout the next three last tracks, Cognoscenti continues balancing between quieter moments (”Pallida Mors” even having a nice piano outro) and mid-tempo black metal sections. I don’t think the compositions stand out with absolute uniqueness, but the band does seem to know what they’re doing at creating a strong whole of black metal that nicely varies between calmful and fierce parts. The running time isn’t prolonged either, clocking at 32 minutes, which is another thing for the album’s good. Cognoscenti might not be the most impressive black metal release of the year, but delivers its music convincingly enough to deserve an occasional spin from me.

3 / 5

OPRICH: "North the Boundless"

Exclusive folk metal has never really been my thing, it has always required at least a vague flavour of black metal to trigger my interest to any extent but, admittedly, there are some Eastern European acts that know how to do it right. Oprich’s North the Boundless is close to that, in that it combines aggressiveness with catchy compositions, not to forget the melancholic parts that I always tend to love the most on folk metal albums.

When I say catchy, do not expect any too simple pop song progressions here. What I mean is that on North the Boundless the sharp electric guitar sound brings the best out off the vivid guitar lines common in folk metal. In addition to the guitars, various traditional instruments are prominently incorporated into the music, often delivering the lead melodies. The drum sound is quite bright as well, and in fact the whole album is a rather polished affair that might not be for those who require some filthiness from their metal. The most I’m impressed of the masculine vocal output, both clean and growled, which is almost a necessity on an authentic folk metal piece.

For musical comparisons, Temnozor is easy to mention here, and as a fan of that band, one can guess that I indeed enjoy North the Boundless. It might not contain as epic songs as the aforementioned band inclines to feature on every album, but Oprich is probably deliberately focusing on the upbeat metal tracks, and the melancholic elements are only an occasional spice in the mix. As for individual tracks, I see no reason to mention any specific highlights as the quality remains intact throughout without any clearly weaker tracks.

North the Boundless isn’t the first nor last folk metal offering in this certain Eastern European fashion, and at what it does, it does it well. I would most likely choose a Temnozor album over this one any day, but North the Boundless is nonetheless a worthy investment for those fond of how folk metal is usually handled over at Russia and its neighbour countries. A three star rating is fully deserved in this case.

3 / 5