In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns

In crafting their first full-length, Abigail Williams have adopted a style of music I generally enjoy far more than their previous metalcore tinged (but still ferociously fun) EP, Legend. In eschewing that element, however, they have lost the incredible variety of sounds that came with mixing melodeath, symphonic black, and metalcore sprinklings into one insane package. While lacking the genre-blending appeal of yesteryear, Abigail Williams more than makes up for this with their devotion to more mature soundscapes.

What remains when the elements of metalcore and melodeath are stripped from the musical soul of Abigail Williams is straight up symphonic black metal, and some ripping good music at that. Despite my chagrin at the removing of melodeath flavors, everything else feels like a natural evolution, and I feel it’s basically unfair to expect a band to continue forward without variance. Based on its own merits, In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns is consistent and beautiful, worthy of your time if you have the imagination necessary to plumb its depths.

All musicians on In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns are total beasts, particularly the variety of drummers, and the vocals are an inhumanly dry, unbending rasp. They work well, and the sparsely used clean sections are appreciated, eschewing the cringingly whiney tendencies of Legend. The production brings out the crisp iciness of the performance to its full potential, and the songs themselves are suitably epic numbers, with twinkling keyboard lines brightening the snowy skyline. Songs run together a bit, and could use some more variety, but have a cutting, ethereal desolation to them that evokes great mental imagery. Despite lacking the stylistic songwriting variance of their Legend EP, it’s a testament to the group that they still remain interesting with this more streamlined formula.

Songs generally shift back and forth between harsh blasting and mid-paced atmospherics, with a reliance on keyboards and tremolo picking to generate atmosphere. I really enjoyed it when the songs slowed down and let the keys take the lead, as these sections really imbue the compositions with the mysterious magic and wonder that this type of music excels at creating in the minds eye. Shouting from the top of towering spires of ice, dragons swooping down to incinerate the last remnants of life in a landscape of nuclear winter, and other epically nerdy themes continually grace the mind. At first I had trouble distinguishing the tracks from one another, and to be honest they still blur somewhat; this lack of potent variation is really what keeps the album from reaching greatness. However, I enjoy In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns more with each listen, which is a great sign for any album.

All told, In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns is a good symphonic black metal album, and should appeal to any fan of the genre, provided you don’t a hate-on for them based on snobbish principle. Its solidity helps make up for any perceived repetition, though I can’t help but ponder on what could have been, had the band kept the awesome, dynamic elements of Legend. While I readily admit that everything here sounds great, it sadly does not hold me in the same rapture as the genres very best works tend to do. Emperor, this is not. A number of spectacular moments, such as the midsection of Floods, nearly accomplish the feat of consuming me, but don’t last long enough to seal the deal. As I stated earlier, I feel the album gets better with repeat listens, as there’s a lot to sink ones teeth into, but I have yet to feel completely at one with it. Had the compositions had a bit more variety, I might have been in love.

What I cannot stress enough is that this album feeds on imagination. The more you allow it to just be itself, and let yourself get lost in it’s epic landscape rather than constantly projecting judgment, the more the music comes into its own. I suppose that’s good advice in reference to any music, though. In any case, I appreciate this album immensely, and I desperately want to yield to its charms, but at long last I feel like I’m watching an epic hurricane from afar rather than basking in the eye. I strongly urge you to give it a chance, no matter your genre of choice, as it may draw you in even deeper than it did me. Even though it’s not musical perfection, I feel like there’s more to be gleaned from these depths, and In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns won’t be gathering dust in my vast collection anytime soon. Clear your mind and enjoy.

-Left Hand of Dog
http://reaperdivision.blogspot.com/

As this album start off, you really don't know what to expect. The intro song, is a simple keyboard melody that could easily suit any and all symphonic black metal band's sound. If anything, it's there to set the mood. However, one should really stick around for what comes next. As the drum intro to The World Beyond kicks in right before the guitars and vocals jump in right away is what really drags you in. The strong blastbeat of the first track (if you don't count the intro), really does stand out in a positive way. If there is something that should not be overlooked here, no matter what you think of the rest of the music, is the drumming.

Something worth noticing here is that the drums were not all recorded by the same drummer. Trym Torson, the drummer of Emperor and former drummer of Enslaved, was a session drummer for Abigail Williams and played on tracks 2, 4, 5, 6 and 10, while the younger drummer Sam Paulicelli, who was a full time member of the band and toured with it recorded fewer tracks, the number 3, 7 and 8. Both drummers manage to shine on this while retaining a style that isn't too different from one another. For anyone who's not quite familiar with Abigail Williams. Ken Sorceron has basically always been the main driving force of the band and most likely hand picked musicians he liked to perform music that he wrote, while maybe leaving them room to do arrangments. In a way, it is quite impressive that In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns gives such a cohesive result when you know that so many different musicians worked on this for the same instruments but on different tracks.

The guitars on this album range from your more traditionnal 2nd wave inspired tremolo picked riffs to much more technical, melodic and fast riffs and sometimes throw in the occasional breakdowns. When the guitars go back to more simple rhythms, it's the keyboards, played by Ashley Jurgemeyer (except on track 6 where they are played by Sorceron), that shines. The guitars and keyboards do complement each other quite well on this record. However with the keys taking such a noticeable place in the mix, the similarities with Emperor's early work become quite noticeable to the point where some might perceive this as more than just hommage and maybe almost and imitation. I personally do not mind this all that much. In my opinion, Emperor really only had two amazing albums, and I'm quite happy to hear other bands taking influence from their work and mixing it with some of their own more original ideas.

Last but not least, the vocals of Ken Sorceron. His vocals are, for the most part, very powerful, agressive and ear-shattering. The black metal shrieks and screams are quite obviously inspired by Ihsahn's vocals from his early work with Emperor. So yet again, the similarities with Emperor are quite noticeable, but Sorceron does manage to deliever these vocals in his own unique way, and mixes them with some clean vocals that bring a breath of fresh air whenever they are used, very sparingly, throughout the record. Sorceron's vocals really do shine because of the guy's stamina and power. And while this is a studio record album review, I can tell you that the guy also delivers live.

My only big complaint about this album is that the bass goes mostly unnoticed and don't stand out at anytime. You might be able to hear the bass if you try to decipher it from the mix, but even then it's not quite worth it as the bass barely does anything interesting. It kind of just stalks the bass most of the time, and on some other occasions I swear I can't even tell if there's any bass.

What really sets Abigail Williams apart from other bands on In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns is the flavor that Ken Sorceron manages to give to the compositions and some of the very distinctive riffs and quite recognizable and solid drumming of both drummers involved. So while the Emperor influences are obviously quite present, with technical drumming and more melodic riffs and technical leads than what symphonic black metal usually offers, Abigail Williams manges to deliver some quite unique and engaging symphonic black metal.

Abigail Williams is an American band that played blackened deathcore. Well, they’re now playing symphonic black metal for a change in their debut album, “In the Shadow of the Thousand Suns”, featuring their newfound black metal prowess. Let’s hear this one now…

A good listen will tell you that they still have some “core” elements in their music, like some breakdowns (fortunately, those breakdowns blended in properly with the keyboards) and the vocalist’s rasping, which definitely sounded like a deathcore shriek. Some parts even have death grunts for backing vocals. Despite the remaining deathcore influences, this album still is symphonic black metal. We have the keyboards here, and I mean a lot of it, because they are used extensively in every song. (Keyboard-driven symphonic black metal is my cup of tea). In fact, it is what drives each and every song in the album, which made the purpose of the guitar riffs mostly for atmosphere. Well, except when solos are played, that is.

Almost everything about this album about this album is like your usual dose of symphonic black metal, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that this album sucks ass, for it’s the albums only flaw as you can hear. It’s sometimes a pain to hear good artists who doesn’t dare to try something new for a change, but still, it is a good listen.

Though, they were a deathcore band, that shouldn’t make you jump to conclusions that they suck. You better listen first, and just try this one out!

Originally made for http://mystifymyserie.blogspot.com

What a staggering fucking gunshot to the foot here. Like many of the metalcore fusion bands that popped up in the mid-'00s, Abigail Williams chose to excise the metalcore from their sound when it came time to write a full-length (for more marketability or due to backlash, who knows), but unlike most bands who attempted such a thing, Abigail Williams incontrovertibly ruined their sound. 'Legend' was a spirited little release that actually made great use of the metalcore elements it employed, resulting in something really catchy and simply fun to listen to. 'In The Shadow Of A Thousand Suns' is a fucking slog to get through, as the band apparently decided that, along with the metalcore, they should remove all the 'good songwriting' and 'interesting elements' from their music as well.

It's not JUST that they removed the metalcore, of course; the melodic death influence was essentially removed as well. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it leaves a core of blasting, symphonic black metal, but the fact is that Abigail Williams' sound was defined by the fusion of the different genres, and when forced to write for one in particular, the results can be charitably characterized as balls. While this is 'symphonic black metal', what it really resembles is a massively incompetent Dark Funeral with keyboards and some proggy elements slathered on top like so much fetid ranch dressing. The songs are one-dimensional, based off of blasting and tremolo riffs versus more rhythmic, melodic, keyboard-led sections, but this attempt at variation is ruined because the band does nothing but repeat the same few elements over and over again, with a complete inability to transition from one to another, resulting in churningly abrupt rhythm and tempo changes and a listening experience that can in no way be described as organic.

There's a criminal lack of inspiration at work here: the riffs are bland, borrowed heavily from Dark Funeral and Emperor's last couple albums, the drumming is blast-heavy and uncreative, and even the vocals, which still bear traces of their metalcore origin, sound completely out of place and awkward amidst the more traditional style of metal at play. The trillion-dollar production values can't save what is in essence deeply uninteresting music; you can tell on these tracks that Abigail Williams pieced these songs together out of essentially random, interchangeable riffs, hooked together by very offhand, irritating synth lines and lead guitarwork. This is truly the last thing I expected when Abigail Williams got back together; after the 'Legend' EP I was very excited to hear what would happen with these guys, and the answer is incredibly disappointing.

Apparently 'Watchtower' from the debut EP is going to make an appearance on the next full-length, so perhaps this indicates the band going back to the metalcore-inspired sound of yesteryear. We can only hope so, because if this is what they do without the hardcore kids flailing about, they're badly in need of some Hatebreed CDs and X'd hands.

The first time I laid eyes on the ABIGAIL WILLIAMS horde I wasn't thrown for a loop. Or entertained. Or even tickled pink. Before I had a chance to partake of their recorded wares I slogged through their live work opening for DARK FUNERAL in 2007 and thought they were awful. Nothing more than simple, generic, nothin'-goin'-on-upstairs metalcore with shrieking vocals and keyboards, hardly becoming of a supporting act for black metal veterans. After that, word spread that they kicked the bucket, and during their moment of silence I'd forgotten about them. So it came to a bit of surprise that they came back from the dead, supposedly better than ever, even employing Trym Torsen (quite possibly the best black metal drummer alive) for temporary skinsman work. So I erred to the side of word-of-mouth to see if these goons had what it took to overtake their core-y roots.

THIS is what should've been the epoch of their existence all those years ago.

For all intents and purposes this album surprised the living Hell out of me. I didn't think ABIGAIL WILLIAMS had what it took to stylistically turn over a new leaf, but dammit if they didn't. Instead of plodding, lifeless hardcore with a melodic edge the listener is treated to energetic, chaotic, violent symphonic black metal with slight twinges of melodic death metal in such a sudden change of events that it almost enduces vertigo. By no means a perfect album nor a reinvention of the style, this album nevertheless satisfies the urge for melodic musical blasphemy of a sophisticated variety, where slashing, monstrous guitar work and rather well-done screams combine effortlessly with black-as-pitch keyboards and blisteringly articulate drumwork into a steamroller of metal monstrousness. A far cry from simplicity for simplicity's sake as seen on their earlier works (and what passes(ed) for heavy music in this day and age), the likes of "The World Beyond", "Into the Ashes", and "Empyrean: Into the Cold Wastes" employ some of the band's tightest and most frightening deliverances that never came to light in any previous works. And while skillfully engaging, the album isn't necessarily perfect, as stated before; while certainly better in many regards this doesn't really hit the creatively original vein in any kind of respect, with a few moments within the disc bordering on mimicry...but in the end it doesn't really mean anything to look too much into the scenario when the overall product is just as great.

So in the end this totally took me by surprise, and has had plenty of staying power in my stereo. Here's hoping the band has the same tenacity for years to come.

Abigail Williams started out as an interesting prospect - it was essentially a bunch of teen metalheads playing what they knew best; At-The-Gates-style melodeath, epic melodic black metal and the obligatory metalcore vibes. Indeed they did this pretty much to the point of farce; vocalist Ken Sorceron's vocals at the time of their "Legend" EP in particular sounded like they were recorded for a computer-generated imp in a children's fantasy film. However, they were actually rather good. They managed to, for a while, be all things to all men and sounded pretty damn original while doing so. However, personal strife broke the band up, and it looked like a very promising collective had been lost to the aether of intra-band wangst.

Perhaps predictably their breakup was more of a hiatus, but it did start the precedent for them shedding members like a snake sheds skin. They reformed with a new lineup, ditched them and went for another lineup for this album, and you can tell that almost every instrumentalist in the band who wrote "Legends" was gone, because it appears that when hiring new guys, rather than articulate what precisely it was that Abigail Williams did, Sorceron just said, "We play black metal", because that's what they do now. Abigail Williams have essentially become what Emperor would have been had they formed in a mall in Phoenix rather than in a village in Norway.

One returning member from the band's earliest incarnation was keyboardist, eye candy and lead singer's "just friend", Ashley Ellyllon - now of Cradle of Filth, who's membercidal tendancies appear to have inspired Abigail Williams even more than their music - and apparently Sorceron was still trying to work his way into her lacy goth thong, because I can't think of any reason other than that why her keyboards are so high up in the mix that they block out everything except the drums. This is a shame because the guitars are really good, more than capable of shredding out the creepy melodies of the songs with icy malevolence. I know this because I heard a pre-mixing version of the song VII Empyrean: Into the Cold Wastes, in which you could actually hear them. In the final release they are swamped by blobs of generic choir synths to the point in which you can't hear a thing of them. It would seem that the endless insertion of "symphonic" into "symphonic black metal" has overpowered the "black metal" part, because Abigail Williams the Second seem intent on trying to out Dimmu Borgir Dimmu Borgir in their overblown pomp-metal. However, they seem to have missed the point somewhat.

Don't get me wrong, this album is both epic and symphonic, but they miss the point like champs. This album has none of the bite that black metal should have. It's simply very safe. There's no real aggression here, which is actually quite a feat from a band with the full black metal regalia of blast beats, high screams and shreddy guitars. It's just very unchallenging, marketable black metal played with no anguish or rage, and with no real motive but to sound cool. And maybe I've been listening to too much Xasthur and Weakling, but to me, this is the sound of black metal played by kids from southwest America who don't have souls. I'm serious, anyone who can listen to bands like Burzum and Immortal and still make music this emotionless is probably dead inside, or possibly are just pricks.

The real shame is that this once original band is now simply trying to emulate the greats of the genre. Dimmu Borgir, Bal Sagoth and Chthonic are practically namechecked, but the most obvious source of inspiration is Emperor, to the point where it's almost funny. They actually got the Norwegian lot's drummer to play for them as a session skinsman on the album. There's influence and then there's this, my friends. The problem is that they're simply not as good as their idols, no matter how hard they try. Overall this album can be summed up with the phrase "They tried too hard to be something that other people are doing much better", which is a shame because the previous iteration of Abigail Williams did the exact opposite - whether what they were doing was as good as it could be or not was irrelevant, because they were so original that judgement didn't really matter. As it stands, they are a good band, but they're trying to compete with legendary bands. They're up against competition so stiff, and so much more capable of playing this style, that their being "reminiscent of" this competition makes them obsolete, and of no further significance. I'm all for pretending that they died in the initial breakup in 2007, and never returned, while they were still more than the footnote they will now be.

Since this is a seemingly "popular" release, I won't go into specifics too much, just make my points from a Euro-metal fanatic's standpoint and let others who are "discovering this great new band" rave more about it.

Note my use of quotations; I feel that this is this album's destiny. Since they are an American band, many lamebrains who have tired of whatever you call the garbage that is trendy this year may feel safe "discovering" Abigail Williams and touting them as the innovators of a fresh new sound, unaware that it has all been done before outside the U.S. borders (as well as inside them). Did you ever notice that? There are "fans of music" who oddly listen to ONLY American bands, as if they really, truly believe that there is no other country on Earth. And as anyone visiting this site knows, that is a very foolish prejudice. I am often embarrassed by my seeming adherence to the exact opposite prejudice, however (but at least I'm aware of it!).

And so, I throw in my words of support for this American band, which if I'd known anything about them (especially their being known for a previous release of what "they" call metalcore) I would have never even given them a slight chance. I am really glad I did give them a chance (or, to be more exact, was TRICKED into listening to them..."hey, listen to Trym's latest project!") After listening to it, and finding it to be much more than acceptable, I examined the booklet and found that Trym did, indeed, perform drums on about 78% of the album. And it is also produced by the revered James Murphy (noted hired-gun guitarist, most notably with Obituary, and then with his own band Disincarnate). James is known for his capability to make an album sound REALLY good, as he does on this, and he also contributes a guitar solo on the first proper song. If you're interested in such things.

The closest thing I can compare this to is Covenant's only really great album, "Nexus Polaris", in that there is sometimes a "spacey" keyboard sound, along with the same sort of song structures, playing, and feel to the whole album. Yes, the keyboards are prominent, but I believe they limit themselves to actual keyboard sounds, rather than trying to duplicate orchestras (done admirably by recent Dimmu Borgir, and NOT so admirably by recent Manowar!) There are some authentically impressive keyboard passages on this album(often using a simple piano sound)...but, honestly, if you can't appreciate keyboards in black metal, you will hate this album. They are the ONLY element of Abigail Williams that could be considered unique, and I'm sure there are a few other bands who also incorporate such a sound.

Aside from the keyboards, the rest is just very typical, symphonic black metal. I heard ABSOLUTELY NO contamination by what some have called "metalcore"...if there IS any on here, it must mean that the term means nothing. There is NO trace of anything on here that says "hey, listen to us...we want to appeal to the dredlocked, pick-up truck driving morons that are the face of American "metal" audiences!" If so, I wouldn't waste the time saying anything good about them. There are majestic guitar riffs, the drum-fueled tempos are mostly in the quite speedy (without approaching hyper-speed) range, and the vocals are higher-end generic shrieks, with a wee bit of variety...but NOTHING like the schizophrenic and ultimately false-sounding high and low vocals of many of their American counterparts (Black Dull-ia Murder, Job for a Cowpie, etc.). The vocals suit the mood of the music, which is truly dark, but not really too "menacing", if you know what I mean. The music's mood is ultimately majestic, grim, and a bit eerie; I just don't feel the "menace" or palpable hatred that is inherent in much black metal (though I've felt that about such bands as Immortal's recent output, as well).

This IS symphonic black metal, with a very European (if sterile yet rich) sound. It may have been made by bandwagon jumpers as a product to appeal to an upcoming phase of trendiness...I don't know. For now, all I can say is that I approve of this album, no matter what they've done in the past or what they may become. I thank my fiend for "tricking" me into listening to them!

Doubtless you’ve heard the name Abigail Williams by now - some of it hype, some of it curiosity given the band’s former incarnation as brutal-yet-melodic death-metal act Vehemence. A constantly rotating line-up, several moves around the country and a brief break-up have likely put the band through a number of trials (those of you familiar with The Crucible get two points for recognizing that pun), but their full-length debut is finally here. And it’s on Candlelight, no slouch for signing quality acts.

Some reviews have denounced Abigail Williams’ sound as nothing more than an attempt to wed black metal with the popular ‘core movement that’s infected many a US death metal act, but I don’t hear that at all. This is straight-up symphonic black, delivered at blazing speed and with a heavy dose of keyboard orchestration. The keys are going to be the most talked-about element here - more on those in a bit.

Although the Cradle/Danny Elfman intro fails to surprise or excite, the main riff of “World Beyond” does quite the opposite - it’s a genuinely vicious assault, sampling from blistering black/death like Zyklon and Myrkskog as much as expected acts like Anthems-era Emperor or Dark Funeral. More impressive, frenzied riffs await in tracks like “Into the Ashes” and “Empyrean.” Combined with a pulverizing blizzard of percussion and Ken Sorceron’s terrific vocal performance (halfway between Jens Ryden and Ihsahn), they’re enough to wipe away any shouts of Hot Topic pandering. The album even strikes a touch of unexpected class by enlisting what sounds like Solefald’s Cornelius for some clean vocals on the title track; if this is actually Sorceron again, even more impressive.

However, despite all these successful elements working together, it’s the keys that frequently reduce the album to yet another Dimmu clone, albeit a good one. It’s not that the orchestration is poorly played - quite the contrary. When symphonic swells are used, usually as an undercurrent to the storm raging on the surface, it’s fine. There’s a lot of piano though, and so what is supposed to come off as grand, majestic and terrifying winds up feeling cute and cliché instead. In slower interludes the piano is acceptable, and when it switches up to a sci-fi warble (”A Thousand Suns”) or kitschy haunted-house organs (”Acolytes”) it sounds a bit fresher too. However, given the ferocity of the riffs, I think the band would do well to stick to a more urgent and chaotic symphonic attack. See Anorexia Nervosa’s Redemption Process for a great example of a more maniacal and feverish orchestration - it makes the tinkly piano here sound precious by comparison.

While it’s true that Abigail Williams may be many fans’ initiation into black metal (rather than recommended gateway drugs like Anthems or Fullmoon Diabolical Mysticism), I don’t hear anything that trendy about this. What I hear is a group of very talented musicians who obviously love the genre and wanted to pay homage to some of their favorite acts (right down to the Necrolord-inspired cover art). Now that they’ve gotten all that out of the way, I look forward to hearing an album which tosses out some of the more tired elements and works at forging an even stronger identity.

Originally posted on www.teethofthedivine.com

So I'm checking up on The Faceless' Planetary Duality tour and scoping out what bands they will be traveling with. Among them are such bands as Decrepit Birth, Neuraxis, and two bands who I had never heard of, Abigail Williams and Veil of Maya. After having read a review on another site about Veil of Maya, I quickly crossed them off of my "bands to sample" list. However I wasn't finding much on Abigail Williams so I quickly headed to their myspace page and heard The World Beyond off of their debut full-length, In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns.

What assaulted my ears was a mixture of symphonic black metal and melodic deathcore. With much of the emphasis on the black metal genre, The World Beyond held my attention fast unlike bands such as Emperor that I had to build an interest in (Coincidentally I'm still not quite there yet on Emperor).

After listening to a couple of other tracks from their debut album I decided to give the entire thing a shot and pre-ordered it. When the album arrived and I was able to hear it, I was pleasantly surprised... sort of. Two things about this album that you may or may not know. First, while Abigail Williams doesn't solely rely on synths to make their songs, their female member Ashley Jurgemeyer is the pianist, who tends to take the lead more often over either guitarist. This isn't a completely bad thing but it has been overplayed time and again, especially by shitty bands like Cradle of Filth. Second, In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns contains contributions from Trym Torson of Emperor so you know his influences will rub off on Abigail Williams one way or another.

Clean vocals are another black eye on this particular full-length. Songs like The Departure contain a festering of clean vocals that just don't seem to fit in with the rest of the material. They're too forced, too out of place and somewhat annoying.

However all does not seem lost for Abigail Williams. The intensity of the deathcore influences keep the album from sounding too much like a Cradle of Filth rip-off completely. It mixes well with the black metal style making sure that the record doesn't turn into a dull monotonous goth album.

The vocals while, nothing special, are better induced then what Cradle of Filth tries to accomplish with howling hag screeches. When Dani Filth screams it sounds like a vacuum cleaner has been shoved into a fat opera women's rectum and turned on high power. The screams from AB vocalist Ken Sorceron are your typical scratchy black metal vocals that are known so well. There's nothing over-hyped about them keeping it simple to fit with the style of music.

In the end, In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns is a decent effort from Abigail Williams. This record certainly doesn't top my playlist chart by far, but I'd certainly rather listen to it than Cradle of Filth any day. Hopefully on their next record Abigail Williams won't rely so much on influences from other bands and try to concoct something more original but this will do.

Abigail Williams debuted in 2006 with the Legend ep and immediately managed to polarize opinion. There was a section of people and media that thought their brand of “blackened melodic death-core” was great while some people thought it was utter shit. Either ways, the band got a lot of press with just that one ep to show for and then suddenly announced that they’d broken up.

I thought that was it for the band but somewhere along the way, main man and vocalist Ken Sorceron decided to put the band back together, write new material and 2008 sees the band release its full length debut In The Shadow of a Thousand Suns. Now, blackened death-core may not sound very appealing. Especially when you consider the added appellation of “melodic,” but the band’s concept of black metal seems to stem largely from Cradle of Filth’s Cruelty and the Beast and Dimmu Borgir’s Spiritual Black Dimensions. It’s melodic, slightly cheesy and overall quite non-threatening. The keyboards play a pretty big role in the songwriting and again it’s of a very gothic nature. There are the occasional core breakdowns but mostly, In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns is your normal everyday blackened death metal where the black metal and the death metal seem to have been inspired by the name bands of the scene.

Case in point is the mid-album song Smoke and Mirrors. Starting with some chuggy riffs and atmospheric keyboards, it then goes off into your typical CoF guitar before coming back to that chuggy metal-core riff. The keyboard playing right through this song could have easily come from a Tristania or Sins of Thy Beloved song. Overall, there’s nothing that’s really too wrong here but at the same time, there’s nothing that’s memorable either.

That’s pretty much the problem with the whole album. There’s very little in terms of song writing maturity or growth from the debut ep to this album apart from the fact that most of the core elements have been replaced by CoF-isms. Ken Sorceron’s had to deal with a revolving door when it comes to the rest of the band and that may have had an effect on the final product but even with that in mind, In the Shadow of a Thousand Suns is a very average effort from a band that’s got more than its fair share of hype.

Originally written for http://www.kvltsite.com