Borknagar's third album.. This group should be well known to you all, being one of the many "super groups" of black metal.. they play a folkier, "epic" style of black metal and do it pretty well... this one sounding more like Olden Domain then the Self-titled (<~~their best by far..).. There is little on this disc that impresses me, but I can see how a lot of people would like this.. many clean vocals occasionally mixed with black metal screams performed very well by Garms replacement Simon (now also in Dimmu Borgir).. The guitars are all played very well, and do some very interesting things, but for the most part, never really build up to anything.. and never sound "epic" at all (their first actually did).. bass is played well, but hidden in the background, with the same description as the guitars applying here.. drumming is excellent, extremely well done, and fits the music perfectly.. vocals, as stated before, are clean vocals mixed with black metal vocals.. the clean vocals range from a "folky" type singing I guess, to more operatic vocals, to a king diamond imitation (which he does pretty well actually), the black screams sounding a lot like former lead singer Garm... so basically, what you have here is a melodic black metal band composed of many well known black metal musicians, trying to sound epic, and failing to be interesting.. its not really a bad cd, but just not something I get into... their first disc should be the first to check out

Appeal: Fans of "epic", folky black metal with a STRONG melodic touch

© 2001 niosrever