Review Summary: Lo-Ruhamah release their extremely solid, yet a little bit flawed, debut album.
Lo-Ruhamah aren't just another one of your average black metal bands. In fact, some people might be hesitant to call them black metal at all. Yes they have the traits of the genre and it is obviously their main style, but there are two reasons why fans wouldn't accept them into the black metal community. The first reason is because, like fellow American band Agalloch, they mix together plenty of post-rock, folk, and progressive elements into their underlying black metal style as well as some death metal influences. Second is because they're Christians. Well just throw all of that nonsense out the window because, like it or not, Lo-Ruhamah are probably going to be a force to reckoned with in the black metal scene in the coming years and their first full-length album,
The Glory of God is quite an impressive start to that.
As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of styles that are mixed into Lo-Ruhamah's music. On this album you'll always get a more brutal and intense sound matched with a more mellow and chill sound right next to it. One second you could have blistering black metal and death metal riffs that sound like they could come straight from an Akercocke record and then you're hit with some beautiful acoustics and you're wondering where the hell that came from. It's the same way with the drumming and vocals. You could have blast beats blaring through your headphones at one point and then all of a sudden it just stops for a folk-like break. Vocally you'll get black metal shrieking, death metal growling, and some operatic clean singing. You just never know what's coming your way on this album and the band always has you on your toes wondering what's going to happen next.
That's not to say that this album comes without faults. Sometimes the band just makes things drag on a whole lot longer than it has to. With the album clocking in at just over an hour, there were bound to be some parts that are a little bit over done. This mainly happens with the whole post-rock element of their sound. Now obviously, metal is the band's strong point. With that being said, they sometimes drag out the atmospheric post-rock parts a little bit too long so when they intend to put you in a trance and build an atmosphere, they sometimes faulter and make you just wish that they would get on with the album. Not saying that they're terrible or anything, just that they could've cut it down just a tad.
This album could gain fans from a wide range of genres. Black metal fans, death metal fans, progressive metal fans, folk, and post-rock fans would all find something to enjoy in this album. With such a wide spectrum of genres covered in one album, you're bound to find something you like. If Lo-Ruhamah cuts down some of the cons that are found here, they'll definitely be a band to watch out for in the future.
