On the opening track they have Jens Ryden on guest vocals who you might remember from Thyrfing, Naglfar and his severely underrated solo project Dead Silent Slumber. This same track also immediately unveils what these guys are really good at: writing catchy black metal that finds that right balance between melody and melancholy while not forgetting the larger than life grandeur such songs need. Think Uada or Blackbraid or even Immortal for quick reference.
They keep the temp pretty high up in the mid-tempo ranges most of the time, but they don’t shy away from slowing things down a bit. Even though there’s no cover on the record this time like they did on the previous album with Katatonia’s classic ‘Brave’, but that doesn’t mean they don’t love their doom anymore. For instance, the penultimate track ‘Ghosts’ is about as fine an old school death doom track as you would expect October Tide or Temple of Void to write.
Likewise, the final track ‘Womb-Death-Dawn’ is a slow burner churning out doomed dirges with that just enough of a nasty twist to keep you hooked til the end. When the album ends on a great prog rock solo I’m left quite satisfied indeed.
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REVIEW SCORE
| 7.6 | If melodic black metal with lots of dynamics and range is your thing, then you can’t go wrong with ‘Stormcaller’. |
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