Stormlegion

From start to finish, I swore that this album sounded like it was made by death metal veterans looking to try their hand at black metal, but a closer look revealed that the members have spent time in various other sorts of underground bands in the Chicago area, so many members have tried their hand at different styles of metal, though my first statement about sounding like “Stormlegion” was made by death metal vets still stands. In particular it’s the drumming style that takes direct cues from Suffocation, from the Smith blasts to the ultra fast “Effigy of the Forgotten” era d-beats. Mix in a few death metal tremolo picked riffs amongst the the tremolo picked black metal chords and vocals that have a slight similarity to Dez Fafara from DevilDriver (which isn’t an insult, I swear!), and you’ve got an album that’s not quite 100% black metal.

Most of the songs roll along in a mid-paced boot-stomp fashion, with low bass drums helping the march along. It’s just too bad the snare has a bit of a wooden clank too it. On one hand, it’s cool to hear black metal that could be played live with some intensity that doesn’t rely on constant blasting, unfortunately taking a constant kick-to-the-head from one end of the album to the other just leaves the listener feeling numb.

Originally posted at www.waytooloud.com