The best way to approach Nine Covens is to accept from the opening few bars that this is not the band we have all guessed the lead singer comes from . It may sound a lot like them but despite any closely guarded secret (we can see you in the promo photo’s dude hiding behind that dark hood with your brooding features and all), the uplifting breaks, keyboards and other twiddly bits are mostly absent from Nine Covens. What’s left is a stripped down but otherwise full-bodied, bass heavy form of black metal that, for reasons I am going to try to navigate, seems to have left some people finding the band difficult to get their heads round..
The setup is that Nine Covens are shrouded in mystery, no one is supposed to know their identities (apart from the highly apparent and fairly clear photographic evidence) but with a promise they are ‘current and ex-members of some of the key extreme bands from the last decade’. Purists among you may argue that there haven’t been any key extreme bands to have emerged in the past ten years but that’s a debate for another time.
After that shameful bit of overpromising, which I can only think is designed to create a bit of hyperbole; I fear they may have provided a rod for their own backs. The first release was not that well received and I couldn’t shake the feeling during the first couple of tracks that I was waiting for the good bits. Back to that aforementioned but not mentioned band and the inescapable influence minus twiddly bits.
Of course that is missing the point and it has to be said this is a step on from the last release. Nine Covens is about producing solid, no frills music while throwing in some at times pretty explosive riffs and a few slower paced, more atmospheric tracks here and there and which form some of the high points of the release like The Mist of Death and instrumental White Star Acception.
It’s all very enjoyable but it’s certainly nothing ground breaking and at times feels a little laboured. I also felt like I had to do a lot of work to like this release which was only in part rewarded. For an extreme metal super-group I feel like this band should be churning out something excellent and with so many bands out there at the moment, both new and old, doing some career beating stuff I think Nine Covens should be aiming their sights a little higher.
(6/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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