Dead River Runs Dry are an Australian Black Metal band and this is their début album.
Here is a band that play evil, underground Black Metal that’s a little different from the norm. Their sound is brutalised-up with an ugly Death Metal influence, making the tracks on Hierophants of the Storm quite imposing. This is further added to by Thrash Metal elements in some of the guitar parts, ensuring that the album isn’t short on riffs.
Growls and screams are both performed well and both used appropriately as and where best for the needs of the song. Powerful-sounding cleans are sparingly employed to enhance more emotive sections too, and these are well-received by yours truly.
The guitars are a highlight of the release, taking on different moods and guises as the whims of the songs dictate. I should mention that the band also have the odd guitar solo, that rarest of things in Black Metal, although with their Death and Thrash Metal influences I shouldn’t be surprised, really.
All of this is not to neglect the strength of the drums though, either, as when they’re not blasting all over the place they take on some very satisfying rhythmic qualities.
The songs are well-composed and have enough content in them to keep me quite happy. It’s a satisfying and surprisingly varied release, relatively speaking. The rather beefy sound merely adds to this, and Hierophants of the Storm is an extremely strong début, one which I’ll be blasting out happily for some time to come. Repeated listens validate this opinion, and over time this album reveals itself to be a definite keeper.
Highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 