The Excellence

Although I'm not a fan of noisy industrial soundscapes transitioning between songs (a la Myrkskog, later Abigor, Aborym, etc.), Seth pulls off a tight release of melodic black metal that uses it's sci-fi industrial noise well to contrast the raging classic melodic black metal the bulk of each song brings to your ears and force you to appreciate the underground metal you are hearing as opposed to anything else.

The guitarwork and song construction are a definite nod to benchmarks in the melodic black metal scene such as Dissection and Emperor, and the release builds solidly upon such work to create a powerful sound. Guitars build well-executed dark riffs among the basic minor scales and aeolian modes, creating a simple and satisfying dark melody over basic minor bar chords. Riffs flow in and out of each other with a cascading urgency, and small but unusual melodic ideas, some building tension by not hovering on the minor third in the scales, help to give this release some degree of seperation from the hundreds of other bands playing this style of dark melodic black metal. There is nothing overly creative about this or any other of thier releases, but that should not stand in the way of those looking to find lesser-known bands of skill playing solid melodic metal.

Vocals and drumming are good but do not stand out in this release; what makes this better than many other imitators is the mastery with which it imitates the confluence of it's influences (does that make sense?) No silly keyboards or sung vocals here, just well-recorded and well-executed melodic darkness.