Symphonic Black Metal – Page 11

Dark Man Shadow – Victims of Negligence (Review)

German band Dark Man Shadow have released their third full length album of Symphonic Black Metal.

This is well-produced slick music with varied vocals and orchestration aplenty.

The male vocals alternate between growls and semi-cleans, with the latter sounding particularly gratifying. These are usually interspersed with melodic/operatic female vocals.

The music has a pleasantly aggressive core with added keys and ornamentation played over the top of it. There is a bit of a Death Metal influence to some of the riffs as well, meaning that the guitars sound a bit more muscular than a lot of bands of this ilk. The band is still largely playing in the Symphonic Black Metal genre and Gothic Metal ostentation abounds, but they sound more solid and heavy than similar bands. Think more Atrocity than Leaves’ Eyes, for the most part at least.

If you’re in the mood for it this album fulfils your Symphonic Metal needs. Have a listen.

Forlorn Path – Man’s Last Portrait (Review)

This is the début album from US Melodic Doom/Black/Death Metallers Forlorn Path.

For a début this is well-written, ambitious and implemented with a skill a lot of bands would envy.

Melodic and orchastrated, yet still having an intensity born of pure Metal this is more aggressive and outright better than I was expecting. From the name and album cover I thought I would be hearing a second-rate Gothic Death Metal Paradise Lost clone, but thankfully my hasty pre-judgement was incorrect, and instead we get epic, expansive, symphonic and melodic Blackened Doom of the highest quality.

At just over an hour in length a lot of passion and work has gone into this album to create a journey that you can get your teeth into.

The vocals alternate between a Black Metal rasp and an ultra-deep growl that is just a pure pleasure to experience.

The forlorn atmosphere and rich melodic melancholy combined with an more aggressive assault than a lot of bands of this genre attempt means that the album always entertains and for me is up there with recent melodic Metal greats like Amiensus.

A refreshing and surprising album; I’ve had my expectations completely surpassed and it’s an abject lesson to me that you can’t judge a band by their name or their artwork. What matters, all that matters, is what they sound like, and Forlorn Path sound very good indeed. Highly recommended.

Endemise – Far From The Light (Review)

This is Canadian Death-infused Black Metal from Endemise and this is their second album.

The band combine the heaviness and brutality of Death Metal with the Blackened atmosphere and symphonics of a band like Dimmu Borgir. Alternatively; imagine a band like Behemoth; now tone down the Death Metal and increase the presence of keyboards – you’re now in the right area that Endemise inhabit. Bands like Alghazanth and Gloria Morti are also good examples.

The songs manage to weave in between these two genres with ease, although they stray mainly into Black Metal territory for most of the album. They might be blasting away full of fury before a keyboard flourish changes their tack and all of a sudden they’re going all grandiose and orchestrated.

True to the rest of the album the vocals fluctuate between high-pitched shrieks and lower growls.

Although a little rough around the edges in places this is an enjoyable album with a few really good moments that they can build on for the next release.

Chthonic – Bú-Tik (Review)

Melodic Black/Death Metal from Taiwan; I haven’t heard Chthonic since their excellent Seediq Bale album so I was looking forward to seeing what Bú-Tik had to offer.

Chthonic embody orchestration and fury. Highly melodic and razor sharp, the songs are flourished like swords as only a master can.

Precise, tight riffing and swathes of keys and strings are combined with folk-Asian influences to produce songs that are reminiscent of the symphonic Dimmu Borgir’s and Cradle of Filth’s of the world but with the origins of the harmonies coming from a much different background. Chthonic very much have their own character.

The drums and multi-layered venomous vocals dominate this release, with the orchestration pitched at the right level. The guitars are sheets of serrated steel working underneath everything, and the bass is muted at best.

With good songwriting and an expert understanding of this genre Chthonic have once again produced a well-rounded and thoroughly enjoyable release. There’s an intensity to these tracks and the molten Metal barely lets up until the album fades. With a whole hat-full of ideas and quirks rolled into their sound repeated listens are recommended. The direct assault of the songs works immediately, but after that has gone you’re left with the insidious harmonies stalking you when you least expect it. Symphonic Black Metal earworms indeed.

An impressively realised album that has obviously had a lot of work put into the compositions and structure of the tracks. Check them out and see what you think; just beware the pointy bits – those swords are sharper than they look…

Amiensus – Restoration (Review)

Amiensus are from the US and play Progressive Black Metal with plenty of melody and epic feelings.

Keyboards and other effects transform the already pronounced melodic talent of the band to another level, washing over the listener in waves of atmosphere.

Restoration skillfully blends aspects of bands such as Opeth, Agalloch and Dimmu Borgir into a talented melting pot and adds something of its own personality to the mix to avoid sounding derivative; the results of which have led to this pretty special release.

I usually find this genre of music a bit too sickly and derivative, essentially it’s easy to do but hard to do well. Whatever this magic, secret ingredient is that makes an album like this great without sounding like another clone of the aforementioned bands, Amiensus appear to have it in spades.

Meaty guitars cloaked in wistful mood and dripping with ear-candy dominate this release, while angelic vocals croon and soar alongside harsher cries and grunts. Female vocals are used to punctuate the atmosphere when needed and are a great asset to the band.

The album flows easily from one song to the next; the symphonic nature of the band working perfectly to accentuate every harmony and lamentation into a seamless whole until suddenly the 46 minutes playing time has elapsed and you’re left simply wanting more.

As début albums go this is high quality indeed and quite an achievement for such a young band. If album number one is this accomplished I can only imagine what album number two will be like.

Here’s to more in the future. You should get this.

Cosmic Infusion – Cosmic Infusion (Review)

Here we have Indian Symphonic Black Metallers Cosmic Infusion with their first release, a 32 minute journey into the nightside.

From the very first couple of seconds I knew I was going to like this. It instantly has that early/mid-90’s vibe that makes me so nostalgic for the mystery and otherworldliness of Black Metal as I was first discovering its dark charms.

Giving off the same vibes as bands of this era this is instantly familiar and yet fresh and inviting as so few bands do this nowadays, and even if they do they inevitably come across as copycats or merely trying to recapture lost glories. Cosmic Infusion are better than that due to the mass of talent they have and the fact that they’re just so damn good!

Vocals are mainly the standard Black Metal shriek, (done well), but we also occasionally get treated to some heroic-sounding clean vocals which are rousing and welcome.

The music is exceptional – taking the standard 90’s blueprint of mystic guitar riffs and heavy orchestration to create hymns to blackness that really do conjure up images of black masses and Satanic rituals.

This, along with the recent Gutslit album, demonstrates a growing hotbed of talent from India. With these kinds of bands as forerunners the region deserves more recognition for services to Metal.

Cosmic Infusion have crafted an excellent first release that will hopefully prepare them well for their first album at some point in the future. Based on the strength of this EP I’ll be salivating at the prospect.

Get this.