Review Summary: "Cast Into Fields Of Evil Pleasure" by Cradle Of Filth is... wait. What? This is a band named Illnath?
I have always been an avid fan of symphonic Black Metal so after hearing about this band, Illnath, and how similar they are to English juggernauts Cradle Of Filth, I ordered a copy of "Cast Into Fields Of Evil Pleasure" to see what all the hype was about on the internet Metal forums. Illnath is based in Denmark and have not only somewhat perpetrated Cradle's sound but sometimes end up surpassing it instead of plagiarizing for easy success. After their EP entitled "Angelic Voices Calling", they replaced their vocalist with Bjørn "Narrenschiff" Holter who will get his own paragraph later in the review.
Like many bands before them, Illnath have taken a liking to an extensive use of keyboards. What separates them from the others is their odd choice of chord progressions. They go back and forth between minor and major keys instead of sticking to one relative but the change doesn't interrupt the flow of the tracks or seem out of place. The guitarist, Peter Falk, tackles all of the guitar duties here, dueling and scaling off of his own riffs frequently, hardly ever playing the same thing as the other guitar. When there is a twin guitar attack it is usually during a passage in which the keyboards are the dominant melody. Thankfully, they have not let their symphonic element outshine the rest of the band. Though it is a large part of the overall mix the other instruments fit nicely within its confines. The production is solid and you can hear the small nuances thrown in with the various arrangements. The drummer on "Cast Into Fields Of Evil Pleasure", Rasmus Jakobsen, is a delight but his playing can be repetitive at times, almost as if he's afraid to go the extra step to push his performance over the edge. On the song "Temporary Borders", female vocals are incorporated into the track which can help further the notion of a similarity between them and Cradle Of Filth.
Their vocalist sounds almost identical to Dani Filth with his high pitched squeals and growls but I would have to say that his voice sounds less strained and more fluid when it comes to the delivery. This is another aspect I found to be somewhat disappointing but his vocals are dead on with every song, and unlike Filth, he will let the music take hold of you once in awhile instead of screaming at you until the end of the song or whenever he gets the chance. Narrenschiff also has a few spoken parts on the album but they aren't anything special or do much for the songs they show up in. The lyrics are basic Black Metal subjects such as evil, death and time. Needless to say we've read these lyrics at some point or another.
Musically, this is a different kind of Black Metal. Solos have never been a necessary part of the genre but Falk seems to think the opposite. The guitar solos are grandiose and are usually in a major scale which add a light to the darkness, so to speak. These little bursts of extreme melody bear a resemblance to 80s Hair Metal solos. If you think this sounds strange, well, of course it does, you would be right. It is strange. But it's also different and completely unexpected which is what makes Illnath special. Although they have a firm grasp on their approach, Illnath suffers from the simple diagnosis that they do, in many ways, sound way too much like the band that brought us "Dusk... And Her Embrace" and "Cruelty And The Beast". They have their shining moments where you forget about it, momentarily, but then Narrenschiff comes back in and you're reminded of this tiny flaw.
"Cast Into Fields Of Evil Pleasure" is a good album and worth checking out but the combination of cliches and innovation can get tiring after awhile. You've heard this before but at the same time its unlike anything you've heard. Illnath is going in the right direction but they need to learn how to develop their music without sounding like copy cats half of the time... or just become better copy cats.
Highlights: By The Hands Of Violent Winter (check out the dueling keyboards and guitars towards the end of the song), Zetite, Bring Down The Witching Hour
