Plagued Be Thy Angel is a worthy successor to the excellent Delictum, who is one of the best melodic black metal albums ever made. It is largely built upon the qualities of its predecessor, but with a few shortcomings that hinders it from being a standalone great album itself. The first flaw is the production, which is cleaner than on the previous record. Delictum was well produced as well, but it had the reverb and recorded-in-a-cave kinda feeling that enhanced the atmosphere present on the record. The second flaw is that Kicki is less prominent on this one, and rather than using the same fairy-like voice as on Delictum, she actually decides to sing on a few occasions. On tracks 10 and 12 her singing is decent, but on the first half of the album it mostly sounds weak. The third flaw is a lack of catchy tunes. Delictum was catchy as hell, but here it is more uneven, with a strong first half and a weaker second half. Nevertheless, there are some highlights, tracks 2-5, 9 and 12. Track 6 is very good as well. The rest is either solid or average. This is the last album with Kicki as female vocalist. The band will also split up for a few years.
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