The Halls of Eternity

Ancient's second album did not reach the level of its predecessor and, even worse, the same went for their third full-length. It was time to make decisions in order to stop this downward spiral. Lead vocalist and drummer Kaiaphas left the band. In addition to his other tasks, mastermind Aphazel himself assumed the role of the lead singer. Incidentally, this was a strange situation. He had been in the band since its beginning, but Grimm and Kaiaphas had been the lead vocalists. If Aphazel would had been a highly gifted singer, why didn´t he appear as the lead singer on the first three albums? However, his acceptable vocal performance on "The Halls of Eternity" did not cause any damage, no more and no less. Furthermore, a new drummer was hired and he proved to be technically competent. The drum performance was flawless. Apart from that, Erychte was replaced by Deadly Kristine. She was apparently responsible for the aesthetic elements, but exactly her contribution marked the major failure of the album. Aphazel felt compelled to integrate a lot of acoustic breaks into his compositions in order to promote Deadly Kristine. As a consequence, all these changes in personnel did not have a significant influence on the musical direction of Ancient. The band still preferred to play melodic black metal. Fortunately, they achieved a better result than that of the previous full-length.

But old habits die hard. This means that the Norwegian four-piece was always at risk to show signs of lapsing into old behaviour patterns. Too much atmospheric and soft parts killed the power of songs such as "A Woeful Summoning" in a matter of seconds. This annoyed me, because the harsh, double bass driven parts of the aforementioned track had been promising. But instead of enjoying a compact mid-tempo number, I was suddenly confronted with an incoherent and overlong piece. Unfortunately, this tune was followed by "Cosmic Exile". It showed a similar pattern. A very well executed section was abruptly interrupted by sensitive sounds and, of course, Deadly Kristine. And more songs with the same configuration were yet to come. Regardless of this, almost every fairly harsh part made me feel good. This was inter alia due to the production. The sound could be described as dense and warm without lacking of intensity.

The best thing was that Ancient also delivered a couple of really gripping tunes that were not disturbed by their female colleague. "Born in Flames", "The Battle of the Ancient Warrior", which marked the highlight of the full-length, and to a lesser extent "From Behind Comes the Sword" were stringently implemented and scored with heaviness and speed. The epic title track was almost on a par with these black pearls, in particular because of its repetitive yet hypnotizing ending. Finally, "I, Madman", the only track that was not written by Aphazel, contributed a nice portion of sickness. The weird aura of this mid-tempo piece was based on a fragile keyboard line as well as on the eccentric vocals.

"The Halls of Eternity" was not a milestone of Norwegian black metal. The level of albums like "Pure Holocaust", "In the Nightside Eclipse" or "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" was out of reach. But some tracks have stood the test of time. Apart from that, the output showed an increasing trend. Therefore, I was not disappointed when listening to the record for the first time, although some of the tunes did not really work. Greetings to Kristine.

I picked up this album, expecting pretty much the same old Black Metal. However there is much melody throughout the whole album, ranging from keyboard-induced melodies to the melodies induced by the female vocalist, which has a great voice. The symphonic background, produced by keyboards and mixed with the harsh vocals of Aphazel, comes together very well. The album opens and closes appropriately with very smooth melodies.

The first track prepares you for the tracks to come with an anticipating beat being played by the keyboards. The first track goes right into the second track that is filled with distorted guitar playing and harsh vocals that coincide with the melody very well. This album is a bit repetitive, within each song, but at the same time, filled with constant melody changes, from track to track. The third track picks up on the speed and the guitars, which fit perfectly with the harsh vocals of Aphazel. Fast drumming, fast paced guitar playing and memorable vocals are strong points of this album.

The fourth track starts of with a very enchanting melody, and continues with that in the background while harsh and clean vocals are mixed together. Distorted and repetitive guitars are being played to coincide with the keyboard melody.
Whereas the fifth track is a dynamic fuse of styles. "Cosmic Exile" goes from Black Metal to Symphonic Metal to Gothic Metal in a matter of four minutes and 28 seconds. All of the elements incorporated in this song are what make the album a solid listen. This is what I mean by "A different kind of Black Metal." As some bands tend to play pure Black Metal, this band goes beyond that and adds in elements from different genres, which in the end appear to work out on this album.

The last track is a keyboard instrumental a kin to the first track, but instead of setting an anticipating mood, it slowly let's you drift away with a slower and slower pace until it stops and the enchantment and daze you were in is finally over.

The album in general is definitely not pure Black Metal. It does not have the repetitive characteristics of many bands, mainly because of the use of a female vocalist and keyboard melodies. If you want a good listen, and you're searching for a Black Metal band with melody, than this is definitely for you. Some songs are catchy, while others lack depth, but overall it is a good listen. Definitely worth, at least, checking out.