Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Cold, talented and atmospheric black metal - 95%

marienbad, August 31st, 2007

This American band plays beautifully dark and menacing black metal with strong concentration on song structures and overall rhythm to travel through two 10-minute black metal songs and one even longer instrumental.

Opening track A Past Forgotten has many great riffs and overall feel of sadness and nostalghia. Especially the guitar melody (sounds like a minimalistic solo) that ends this song is very emotional and memorable. There are slower parts in this middle-paced song and in addition to guitar also synths are used to richen the whole.

Second and third songs are much shorter and may possess also slightly more positive feelings or playfulness compared to rest of the album. Especially the opening riff of Demonic Entrapment is fantastic in its devilish playfulness yet also darkness and despair. This is fast song after which you'd not expect what is yet to come.

...And Death is perhaps my favourite in this album. A very atmospheric and isolated black metal song sung with mysterious whispers only. This works uniquely and you are offered a chance to get into a trance-like state during the song's ominous and minimalistic yet totally captivating guitar lines. The song is also not very fast and it remains almost the same throughout it. Since the guitar melodies, whispered vocals and drum rhythms work together so well, this song is everytime over a little too soon.

Spectramancy is a fifteen-minute instrumental outro that sounds occasionally like Burzum but not in a bad way. The instrumental has a very captivating and fascinating space-like atmosphere in it. I have had a vision during this song: I'm in outer space so far away from our Solar system that it would not be even possible physically and realistically speaking. I'm millions of light years away from this place in the middle of freezing and merciless emptiness of dimensions and time. If it was possible to see a ray of light traveling in its horrifying and paradoxical speed, it would probably sound like the "fastest" middle part in this strong instrumental outro.

Cold Northern Vengeance's album is a total of five very carefully composed songs from black metal's more depressive, foggy and isolated forms.