Many people have disregarded this CD due to the synths and female vocals.. that seriously sucks for them because this is a truely great disc!! Although it has no raw qualities, and does not rely on hate and anger and all that for atmosphere.. they do a WHOLE lot of interesting, new things to black metal... As if it isn't obvious, mid-paced black metal is my favorite style of music (Lux Occulta, Burzum, Arckanum, Judas Iscariot, etc.), and these guys for pretty much 90% of the disc keep it mid-paced (the other 10 is SLOW paced, which also works!), and it works incredibly well!!! They pull it off like no other (although some do it better, these guys do it DIFFERENTLY)... This album has a wide, wide range of atmospheres (as does all mid paced black metal), but for the most part, the feeling I get from a lot of the songs is that you are part of a large army, marching, getting ready for a huge battle knowing you are going to die, but still yet you go on...an amazing effect.. and for when that isn't going on they mix it up with feelings of triumph, gloom, depression, death, war and things of that sort... Guitars are actually drop tuned, which prevides an interesting effect, they for the most part play slow to mid paced riffs, nothing complicated, just a straightforward marching rhythms.. works with the atmosphere extremely well, bass is played well, although it does little besides follow the guitars, but this also ends up working for the atmosphere as it gives the guitars a bassier tone, making it feel more murky, gloomy, and what not... drums are performed extremely well! No blast beats, but lots of great mid-slow paced sections, and lots of double bass kicks that somehow work with the speed of the music.. as said before, there are synths, but these synths are used a lot better than a lot of bands out there, I'm not saying he is more "technical" or what not, but he knows how to make the synths work into the music to create atmosphere rather than destroy it... female vocals on this disc are very high pitched, mournful, and strange.. and performed well... there is only like 3 cds I've ever heard that I appreciate female vocals on, and this is one of them.. male vocals are in the black rasp style, but they are performed somewhat differently.. their sound emulates what I was talking before about the atmosphere.. you can tell this guy really means what hes saying..... So pretty much what you've got here is mid-paced, atmospheric black metal done just as good as any other out there (well.. not really.. but close enough).. so by all means pick this one up

Appeal: Fans of mid-paced BM and/or atmospheric (but not "epic") BM

© 2001 niosrever