Falling Sky

Artist: Myrddraal
Album Title: Falling Sky
Label: Decius Productions

This is the second full-length album from Myrddraal, an Australian band playing fast black metal.

In my review of Myrddraal's first album, I wrote that it was great, but there was room for improvement. Well, wait no longer, because "Falling Sky" is that improvement. This band sounds as if it's undergone a major upgrade in both songwriting and musicianship. The guitar playing is much tighter, and the riffs themselves are highly original. The drums sound better, too, especially the cymbal. The snarled vocal style that was put to such good use on "Blood on the Mountain" has been perfected here, and the clean vocals that were a bit weak on that album are much improved, as well. The ending of "Live by the Sword" is a perfect example. It's one of the best moments on the album, in part because of the clean vocals!

The lyrics deserve special mention. It's rare to see a black metal band with rhyming lyrics, and rarer still to find one with intelligent concepts behind the words. Myrddraal is both at the same time, and that's something truly surprising. Both vocal styles are quite understandable, which allows even the casual listener to enjoy the lyrics.

It doesn't get much better than this. "Falling Sky" is an excellent release, and a fitting epitaph for Decius Productions. "Pernicious Melioration", indeed! Highly recommended.

Standout Tracks: "Immolation", "Die by the Sword", "Pernicious Melioration Part One"

Review by Vorfeed: http://www.vorfeed.net

This is a cool album. What’s cool is that it is different from the previous one, without going to pretentious extremes for the sake of impressing its audience. The people involved are undoubtedly talented but I’m afraid I do not see them attaining international acclaim because of the way things turned out for them. But here in Australia, they are well-known enough and maybe that will be enough for them. First of all they have The Serpent Inquisitor of Stargazer fame drumming for this one. If you have not heard Stargazer – you’re missing out and what this means for Myrddraal is that they have one hell of a drummer on their side. The album took ages to complete and they perfected it to a ceratin level, well above Blood on the Mountain. The sound and production are just so much clearer, the songs have diversified. What remained staunchly Black Metal has become faster and more chaotic. I think it also sounds more modern, in the weird sense that the modern fascination with Thrash crept in and laid its claim to how the songs progress and the trashy interludes that glue the movements together. There are some very tranquil moments here as well, which I thought initially were performed on keyboards, but having seen the band play one of them live I was surprised to learn that they were done using guitar effects. Overall a great album, combining violence and lots of atmosphere and even choral interludes! Together with surprisingly some very Black Sabbath moments. Hail.