Review Summary: An eccentric blend of melodic black metal
Featuring members of Slaegt alongside singer Shaam Larein, Scimitar’s first proper full-length offers a peculiar style blend. Melodic black metal serves as the primary foundation with the music driven by brittle guitars, blasting drums, and grainy production. The vocals provide Scimitarium I’s biggest wild card, delivered in a clean wail that triggers associations with blackened heavy metal and even a bit of occult rock flair.
Pairing extreme instrumentation and singing isn’t too unusual at this point, drawing comparisons to groups like Attic and Hammers of Misfortune’s early work among others, but the musicians play off each other well and go all in on the atmosphere in unique fashion. The instrumentation is served by the raw presentation with the playing is precise enough to support the melodicism and navigate the dynamic shifts at play. The vocals would suggest a more accessible listen than your standard shrieker would provide but they bf up with their own sort of disorientation, sitting distantly in the mix to blend with the other elements but always identifiable.
From there, I must admit the songwriting takes some time to really wrap my head around but the differing influences leads to tracks that are just as eclectic. The opening instrumental title track may be a little overlong but it has a cool build that plays into the subsequent onslaught of “Aconitum” and “Red Ruins” quite nicely. Things feel decidedly more settled in halfway through as “Hungry Hallucinations” injects some gothic hustle, “Fever Dance” has enough frenzied drums to shake up its mid-tempo rhythm, and the closing ten-minute “Ophidia” cycles through a bouncy riff set with an almost spaced out breakdown nestled in the mix.
Overall, Scimitar’s first album presents an eccentric blend of melodic black metal. While there are a couple points where I feel the songwriting could be a bit more finetuned, this also has the makings of a grower with even more listens. One can also imagine a lot more being done with this formula, suggesting even more extravagance in the future. This sort of blackened heavy psych mix is a niche I’m always looking to see more of and I’m intrigued to see where Scimitar could take it.
