Review Summary: A death metal band in black metal clothing
Religion in music is possibly the worst thing ever. Being a Christian, I find it rather annoying that so many black metal bands delve into all sorts of faggish satanic concepts that serve no purpose other than to isolate people like me from listening to their music due to moral principle. I'm not going to be a hypocrite and say that Christian metalcore bands and such are so much better, because frankly they're just as pitiful. In my personal opinion, religion has zero relevance in modern music. Although not wholly black metal, Unanimated indulges in this kind of satanic imagery, which is the main reason why I had trouble really getting into at first. Unfortunately, this kind of musical prowess and originality is rather hard to ignore completely.
First of all, this is Unanimated's first album in 14 years, and a definite improvement from "Ancient God of Evil" which received mostly poor reviews by the few critics that bothered to listen to it. No, Unanimated has garnered no abnormal fan base or legendary status during their long dormancy unlike sleeper bands like Cynic and Absu. The reason for this lies in Unanimated's roots. Unanimated is the bastard child of black metal and death metal, claiming Mayhem and their ilk as influences while adhering to a Swedish-based death metal sound. In essence, Unanimated is a death metal band dressed up in black metal clothing and trying to fit in. With their dark lyrics and disjointed blast beats, they do a pretty damn good job.
As far as musicality goes, In the Light of Darkness is a mixed bag. I don’t throw around the term “blackened death metal” very much because frankly I don’t believe that it exists, but if it did, it would sound like this. Unanimated has a very remarkable style that blends death metal and black metal together seamlessly. The riffs and rolls themselves favor a more low ended thrashy death metal sound but the tone quality of the guitars is very dark and black metal-esque. The drummer uses a few blast beats, but they are mostly slow and disjointed. Fortunately, they are very scarce. The actually use of melodies are welcome and quite breathtaking such as one liners of “Death to Life” and the mournful acoustic textures of “Strategia Luciferi.” The musical quality actually makes this a worthwhile listen.
The lyrics and vocals are of course, a completely different story. Unfortunately, the growls which accompany most of the music are quite audible and comprehensible. My personal favorite is;
"Lord of darkness,
Prince of death,
Illuminate me of your darkness and might,
Embrace me now, wings of flame,
Lead me now into the endless beyond"
The vocal performance itself is only standard and somewhat diminished by the somewhat obnoxious lyricism. However, I feel it would be kind of stupid if I were to completely ignore an album based on a few isolated lines and phrases.
Despite my personal distaste for the satanic image, this is a great album and worthy of your time if you are a collector of death metal or black metal. This is sure to satisfy considering most of you will not have any scrap of religion to prevent you from enjoying this to the fullest extent. Half of you are satanic lizards anyways. Enjoy.
