What an album, take away a lot of the needless doodling around and unnecessary spoken word parts out of the middle and this could have been a classic, folky-black metal at this length might make you think of Moonsorrow, but this album is a different beast altogether. Harsh black metal screams contrast with what would best be described as a decent 'epic' clean vocal style, which would improve and become more natural on later albums, the cold sounding riffs lead the way most of the time, along with luscious keyboard/synth work, the climax is stunning, the first fifteen minutes is godly, but the man tries way too much in the middle, still though, it's a fantastic experience. Sure, the production might put some people off, not to mention the beastly length, but for a debut album, you don't get much more impressive or daring than this. Recommended.
(Full review to come tommorow maybe, or even tonight depending on what time I get in)
1 Bumps | Bump |