I felt like being helpful; cheers :D
btw, review-wise, it really is good. I pos'd.

@Wizard - Colbalt is for the most part, a black metal band, but they rely HEAVILY on sludge metal influence.

ThePalestMexican -

Wanna be taken seriously when writing black metal reviews? KNOW your black metal. USA has a significant number of extremely good black metal bands. Widely explore the genre your reviewing first. Then compare it.

Xasthus
Wolves in the Throne Room
Goatwhore
Skeletonwitch
Abigail Williams
Krieg
Krallice
Tombs
Weakling
Leviathan
Absu
Nachtmystium
Velvet Cacoon
I Shalt Become
Morgul


All fantastic USA BM.

Not to sound like a douche, but Goatwhore and Skeletonwitch aren't really black metal bands, and Morgul is from Norway. But, the point is that there are active black metal groups in the USA. I'm not sure that widely exploring a genre is necessarily prerequisite for reviewing an album within it, but if you do so, try to avoid statements about the genre or where the band's role in it lies.

My mistake on the Morgul. As for the former two, both play forms of melodic black metal, with death and thrash influence, respectively. When the reviewer here is talking about Cobalt in such a way to including it in the 'black metal genre when it has sludge influence, it's safe to assume he isn't looking for straight up black metal ie Dark Funeral, Funeral Mist or 1349.

Some I mentioned are hybrids, but still have very strong BM sounds.

all that shit you listed sucks learn to usbm

I need to listen to more black metal if I want this review to be taken more seriously I'm guessing

No, it's just a matter of discussing the album without all the comparison. There really isn't much black metal to these guys anyways.

American black metal often times gets an unfair bad rep, when really it has tons of great bands (especially in the past few years).


American BM >>>>>Any other worldly BM thx!

@Wizard - Colbalt is for the most part, a black metal band, but they rely HEAVILY on sludge metal influence.

They sound like Tool if they were to go sludge with a very little hint of bm if you want to be technical. Also, your list of bm has far too much crossover stuff on it.

American BM >>>>>Any other worldly BM thx!