With a full length and demo out already my first experience of this Dutch outfit is this nicely packaged digipack CD with two tunes of fairly melodic black metal that opens abruptly with “Peace Through Power”. The sound is crisp and powerful with the vocals being clearly roared and screamed with virtual lyric deciphering clarity. The inclusion of a cleaner vocal approach is likely to send the pedantic black metaller screaming false but I’ve said it many times before and that is if you back track even to the so called elitist early 90s the black metal bands didn’t scream continuously then either all of the time. There is a paganesque quality to the way the songs shift from one style to another, maintaining momentum and injecting variety. The drums have a very low end thud about their sound, creating a muffled and almost stifled atmosphere. Lead work towards the end of the opener is very good, has plenty of emotion and is well thought out.
Second tune is “Bound To Annihilate” and begins with an acoustic piece that is very serene before it ultimately transforms into blazing cacophonous bedlam. Again the use of riff changes and tempo shifts works exceptionally well, especially when the riffs are this distinctive. The song has plenty of sizzling vitriol embedded into its fabric but coupled to those ever changing modifications in pace the song listens like a very long chapter of a book with many subsections possessing alluring solos and memorable riffs.
A fairly short overview for this two track effort and if the quality is maintained then the next full length should be a big step forward.
(7/10 Martin Harris)
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