Avenger
Godless
7
This seems to be a black metal record recorded with Entombed's old guitars and screamed by a very grim Czech. And I am digging it. It's not terribly well produced, and the compositions are a little too infernally scattershot for their own good, but the combination of Black Metal grimness and Death Metal guitar mass makes every note played an enjoyable experience for the lover of heavy metal. Granted, it's not very frostbitten, but I have always found the icy thin sound of average Black Metal to be audioshit.
As an extra bonus added feature, Avenger have demonstrated that the heft and quality of the guitar sound really brings out the power in the melodies of Black Metal. What I would normally dismiss due to unlistenability I can now discern and appreciate. The combination of somewhat haunting compositions and meatrending guitars is enticing.
The songs are sung in Czech, so I can't laugh at the lyrics, but the singer follows typical BM scratching vocal procedure. The musicianship is nothing out of the ordinary, but it doesn't stand in the way of the songs.
Bottom Line: I dig this record. Black Metal Heads may find nothing special in it, and may even be turned off at the idea that it's heavy, but everyday metal fans ought to have a decent time listening to this. It satisfies the need for weight in our music but still remains fairly true to the Black Metal ideas from whence it emerged.
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AvengerBohemian Dark Metal
3/13/2012