From the Darkness

Black Angel from Peru existed already six years when this piece of music was recorded and eight when it was finally released. Nine tracks and a total length of this album of over fifty minutes, enable the listener to get quite a good impression of how this band interprets black metal. Not very surprising is the actual outcome of what they attempted to perform: old-school black metal with influences from the thrash as well as the doom scene.

South American black metal is (in parts) different from the European one for instance. Current ongoing trends are not adopted so quickly and music from this continent has somehow the odour of being old and coming from a different time. Such is also the case with Black Angel's From the Darkness and over the course of this release, this band is never able to impress the listener beyond the aforementioned aspect.

With influences from the thrash, riffs and solo parts, as well as the doom, tempo and interludes, the mere arrangements of components might suggest the music to be interesting and raise curiosity. Yet, how everything has been put together and arranged in the songs, speaks of something different. Plainness is dominating the music and the band has some difficulties to break out of the monotony; for which they are responsible. The problem with this release is how it neglects any modern influences from changing the music in a certain direction and how it pretends to be old-school in a time when such a term is overdone; maybe even a label some might despite. Black Angel's art lacks of dynamic and accordingly do variations irritate, because they appear out of the nowhere and are not neatly woven into the songs. Further attention needs to be drawn towards the vocals, whose style never changes over the whole course of fifty-three minutes. This powerless croaking by Maskin is a real strain to the nerves; especially as the mix is as such as to emphasise the performance. No passion is in them, no aggressiveness that would add some power to the music and not surprisingly do the songs progress without to impress.

From the Darkness lacks of fascination and accordingly it is difficult to listen to it over a longer period of time. Even though the songs have a neat atmosphere, nothing would be there to back it up and to offer something to the listener that would encourage someone to let this piece of rotate over a longer period of time. One song is interchangeable from another one and the band is caught in their self-restriction. Occasional glimpses of neat elements and ideas are to rare to overshadow the overall negative impress this release is leaving behind. Purists of old-school black metal, as well as the underground folks should give this band a try.

This review was written on the tape edition of this album.