‘Violent and hateful black metal’ is the name of the game for this horde based out of Hollywood of all places! Yep it’s certainly not the first place that you would associate with this style of music unless of course you are Nicholas Cage’s son (and please take that in the humour it was meant). Vesterian’s red carpet is one littered with the heads of the fallen and not one where the likes of Bruce, Sly or Arnie are going to come in and save the day at the last minute. But enough of the clichés and let’s move onto the sound of the band formed as Centurion back in 94. Changing their name in 97 the band has released no less than 5 demos before finally getting together this their debut album via Glorious North Productions.
Crows caw and we get the idea amidst the rumbling thunder and marching that we are on the battlefield of the cover art. ‘Gathering’ atmospherically sets up before drums roll in, guitars violently flurry and a hellacious scream is unleashed. ‘Under The Red Moon’ is fast furious and takes no prisoners. There is a cold feel and icy swagger about it all but amidst the seething maelstrom the dynamically charged melody wins through the brutality. There’s a bit of Abbath about ex Gravespawn vocalist Verigo throaty croaks and the furious guitar assault never lets up for a minute but is not afraid to go for some soaring solo spots either really adding character and melody.
At just over an hour in length this is no short album but it is one that I knew on very first listen was one that I really liked. It has taken a fair few plays and has solidified its position and although like has not quite become a love affair these anthems have certainly left an indelible mark. It’s not often that a band like this really put so much emphasis on guitar soloing but some of the ones here literally streak to the sky like bolts of destruction aimed at knocking the angels from their perch; strimming, staffing and scorching with glorious precision. Due to this songs on the whole are long but the rapturous playing hardly makes them feel like they have overstayed their welcome even at 9 minutes of duration, in fact at times I simply did not want them to end. A cleaving fury with rough and ragged cries out to ‘Satan’ sees ‘Ancient Bloodthirst’ going more for the throat and with some symphonic embellishments the multi-layered sound builds up gloriously with a real thick feel about it.
There is a feel that goes back to the second wave of black metal on numbers like ‘For battles To Come’ a bit of Emperor and early Abigor with a splash of Dissection too and the sound is unadulterated with nothing swerving it from its intended path to battle until all that is left are the bodies of the dead. Things get very L Sprague de Camp as far as titles are concerned and it’s like an epic Conan novel as the drums thunder and atmospherically charged flailing fill out the speakers for ‘Dark Oceans Roar During The Cosmic Upheaval.’ Vocals go from massive roars to spoken words and even a burst of clean harmonic crooning, plenty going on here. By finale ‘Blasphemous Sorcery Of A Witch King’ we certainly feel like this is a Hollywood Blockbuster and for once it really is!
Sure the band could have honed things down a bit and made this more compact but considering they have waited so long for a debut album why should they and this is an album very worthy of putting a full hour of your time to indulge yourself in. A solid effort in every sense and hopefully once the War Age arrives there will be another album to greet it!
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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