urbain-asoulpurged-reviews

Review from Blasted by Britton

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 20:04:05 +0100

From: Blasted by Britton

Published: January 12, 2025

When Hypnotic Dirge sent me a rather large pile of CD’s to review, I didn’t know the vast number of quality albums they have released. After this album I only have three CD’s left from them to review, and all of them have been great. Such is the case with “A Soul Purged”, the one and only output thus far from Houston, Texas-based Urbain. Looking at the cover, I thought for sure this was going to be an Industrial album. Nope! I’m wrong, almost all of the time. Lol.

While the band claims they are “Urban Black Metal”, at its core, “A Soul Purged” is Black Metal. Super-fast, well played and catchy as hell, the band manages to create a sound within the realm of Black Metal that is so unique that no other band immediately pops into my head while listening to this. The music breaks down at times into more of a Post-Black Metal, kind of acoustic sound and the transition between the three styles are executed flawlessly. There are sound effects from urban environments like the sound of traffic. The keyboards are done well and not only accompany the other instruments musically, but they also become almost experimental at times, and you’ll hear some crazy sound effects. I love the guitars on the album. Both the Metal and acoustic guitars simply rule, and the album is full of great melodies, impressive solos and leads.

The vocals are a highlight of “A Soul Purges”. Most of the album the vocal style is a total “true” Black Metal style which is great, but there are moments when the band sings in a clean “group/choir” style that is hauntingly beautiful. The vocalist has a great low end Death growl, but it’s not used often. The lyrics are interesting, and they weave tales of death, suffering and life and death in a big city.

The production is far above average, and I have no issues with this at all. The album sounds great.

The cover is what threw me for a loop, making me think it was going to be an industrial album. It looks like it! It is a dark, eerie photo of a large city… maybe Houston, since the band is from there. The sky in the photo is dark, the city is dark and looks like a wealthy part of the business district and the foreground of the photo looks like a part of the city where urban decay has taken its toll. Inside of the digipak you will find all of the lyrics, a fancy photo of the band looking all dapper in nice clothing and album and band information. The album says Rick Custer took the band photo, but it gives no credit for the cover photo. Maybe Rick took that too.

Well, this was a pleasant surprise and “A Soul Purged” reminded me to not judge a book by its cover. This was an unbelievable experience I won’t soon forget, and I will come back to this album often when I need to hear something both sinister sounding and beautiful. I can’t recommend this enough if you are into Black Metal at all. If you want it, you better hurry as the physical version is limited to 300 copies.

Rating: 10/10

Review from Headbanger Reviews

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 20:02:57 +0100

From: Headbanger Reviews

Published: December 23, 2023

Original Link

Far from an uncommon topic for metal but especially black metal, misanthropy is something that we can all relate to when it comes to metal music. We’ve seen it become an absolute pillar of what many different corners of black metal are able to bring to the table with all sorts of different approaches, styles, and executions able to deliver it in such a form that leaves us understanding why humankind is a bittersweet existence upon this world of ours. In the dense cities where the individual becomes less than nothing, it’s all too easy for those very same emotions to coalesce albeit in a different form than what we might expect in the realms of black metal. With their debut album, Urbain tackles that very subject with surprising quality and loads of passion.

There are few things that are as synonymous with black metal as a whole than the very concept of an unbridled, primeval, utterly cathartic scream into nothingness be it to defy that emptiness or a longing to be a part of its ever-expanding stillness. One tends to imagine such a theme as more of a metaphor more than anything else, but it’s in the concrete wilds of our cities that Urbain sought to bring them to the literal world with their debut album, “A Soul Purged”, seeing the Texan quintet deliver naught but immense justice to the concept. Nine tracks that show us the madness, isolation, and outright dystopian tendencies that occur within the towering hells where people corral together like cattle hoping to weather out a world-ending storm, “A Soul Purged” holds nothing back whatsoever as Urbain quickly shows us what they’re capable of. Rather than standing as an act with little more than some distortion, less than sub-par production, and howls for good measure, Urbain puts forth a performance driven by primal sorrow, the experiences of personal horror, and bleak but honest reflection upon the modern state of urbanization driven by evocative black metal that’s constantly backed up by synths and orchestrations that add real depth and even further despair to really allow the pits of depravity to open wide, consuming the listener in one massive, fell bite. As dense as the cities they seek to disassemble and as harrowing as the experiences that served as the unfortunate inspiration for such a creation, “A Soul Purged” is Urbain’s first step into the underground with it already showing off the immense power and promise that we can come to expect from the burgeoning act.

Where many associate the isolationism and disparity in cities in media with films like the 1978 movie, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, it is now in the world of metal that “A Soul Purged” and Urbain demand to be held within the same breath when concerning the topic. The walls are constantly closing in within these nine tracks as Urbain shows an astonishing aptitude at bringing terror to some of the brightest places on the planet with no hope left in sight and no one spared its hellish visages.

Review from GBHBL

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 20:02:01 +0100

From: Gmhbl

Published: December 11, 2023

Original Link

The company of Urbain and their debut album might be black metal orientated, but it is not the ‘be all and end all’ of their sound. This band is aiming to challenge black metal experiences and that is notable from the start with Perception. An opening track that focuses on gothic-toned and gloomy piano melody, before transitioning into a scathing atmospherically heavy blast of savagery. The chill that comes from this track will be felt deeply, yet it has such an epic stance overall, with layers of melody and traditional metal moments.

It’s a start that guarantees this album will have grabbed a ton of attention already.

Yet, it is just that. The start, and with C.A.F.O. Urbain offer up an early breather as they keep things melodious for a short amount of time. Before bringing a cacophony of brash and brilliant intensity with the gargantuan sound of Without Conscience. Urbain continuing to sound possessed, but coating their ferocity with so much atmosphere, it feels transformative.

Especially as it ends and transitions in the mellow, gloomy sound of Lockdown. The lamentable melody of this track, and how it picks up in pace, is reminiscent of confusion, hopelessness, and fear. Which leads wonderfully (how great is the flow of this album!?) into the angry, harsh, and grandiose title track. Three words that combine to create a tortured listen.

Bissonnet then continues the theme of dark and despairing intermissions. Arguably the most worrisome one of all, before Unseen sends the mind spiralling into the darkness at a rate not seen yet. Urbain delight (to some degree) in showcasing misery in its bleakest form, though they are masters of making it so listenable.

Which is why fatigue doesn’t set in and the desire to hear more is still high come the final portion of the album. There is Nihilophobia, a little over a minute of dramatic and cinematic gloom, and there is No God to Greet Me. A mournful and monstrous example of how Urbain combine deep melodies with black metal. Sounding more extravagant than ever, it is a thrilling finale that leaves the listener with such a sense of wonder.

Urbain promised to not stick to the black metal rules, and they have more than lived up to that promise. A Soul Purged is a spectacular slice of forlorn heaviness, with thick emotive atmosphere, and layered beauty throughout.

Review from Smashing Skull Session

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 16:16:04 +0100

From: Smashing Skull Session

Published: October 5, 2023

Original Link

Urbain is an American progressive black metal band that formed in 2020 and A Soul Purged is their debut album released by Hypnotic Dirge Records.

The band describes their style as urban black metal since their themes and concepts deal about modern urban dystopia and decay. A Soul Purged turned out a massive and innovative album. It consists of nine songs and four of them are relatively shorter instrumental songs that function as delightful and atmospheric bridges between the songs Perception, Without Conscience, A Soul Purged, Unseen and No God to Greet Me.

Urbain prove themselves geniuses in composing and producing a balanced album that beholds aggressiveness and progressiveness at the same time. Fragile and bombastic at times. 1990’s symphonic BM is in there and the vocals are divers with a filthy high-pitched shriek on most parts, but with some grunting and clean backing vocals mixed in there as well. Although completely different in sound, I wouldn’t be surprised that a band like Savatage, and was some sort of inspiration when it came to the writing and execution of orchestral arrangements, sensitive piano passages, multiple background vocals and wonderful guitar-solos. The pace in the songs alters between fasten your seatbelt, grooving midtempo and melancholic downtempo. On top of all this are well-thought thinking-man lyrics that deal about what Bill Hicks best described in his quote: “I’m tired of this back-slappin’ isn’t humanity neat bullshit. We’re a virus with shoes!”.

Because of aforementioned ingredients there’s plenty of variation what makes this on all levels a more than pleasant album to listen to over and over.

Fans of melodic, progressive, and atmospheric black metal will most definitely be interested in what Urbain has to offer. Surely one of those remarkable revelations in this genre. And mind you that this is only their debut album! I’m looking forward to what the future beholds even more for this band.

Reviewed by: Tim Pijnenburg

Review from Echoes Zine

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 09:39:16 +0100

From: Echoes-Zine

Published: August 24, 2023

Original Link

Urbain jsou mladou kapelou, která si ostruhy teprve brousí. Zkušenosti si do ní muzikanti přinesli z řady jiných projektů, které se však obracely hlavně k death metalu. V Urbain se ovšem brousí jiné nářadí, a tak je na místě být zvědavý na to, jak se pracovní postupy nové kapely ustálí a získají na jistotě. Jisté však je, že na debutu, který se jmenuje A Soul Purged, už můžeme vidět kapelu, která si jde za svojí představou moderního blacku, aniž by se nechávala svazovat tradicemi. Cítím jejich snahu o to dělat hudbu nevšedním způsobem, ale to nebrání tomu, aby sem tam vynesli eso v podobě osvědčeného zaklínadla. Matoucí může být obal, já jsem při pohledu na něj čekal dávku industriální cizoty a elektronické dokonalosti, ale chyba lávky. Album je v tomhle ohledu staromilské a lidsky hřejivé i ve svých temných odstínech.

Bez jakékoliv nadsázky platí, že album přináší momenty, do kterých se umím vášnivě ponořit a prožít skutečně silné emoce. Ve slastném omámení mě napadá slovní spojení atmosférický black metal a proč ne. Melodické cítění Urbain je široké a do nenávistných, surových pasáží se jim vloudily třecí plochy v podobě melodických sekvencí, které jsou naopak přítulné jako štěně. Tato jemnost nás nenásilně posunuje do hájemství atmosférického rocku, který je tvrzen jenom blackovým chraplákem. Vzteklý skřehot mi nejednou připomněl dávný vztek Grutleho z Enslaved, když ještě nebyl zkrocen progresivními nápady. Album zároveň díky rychlým vypalovačkám dovoluje tvářit se drsně, dělat ksichty do zrcadla a vůbec oprášit všechna svá oblíbená klišé.

Urbain jsou někdy možná nevědomky tradičnější než by chtěli, a zcela automaticky skládají poklonu zasloužilým ikonám melodického blacku. Jednak tu máme čilé a tvořivé kytary a pak hlavně výrazný vliv kláves, které za ty historické reminiscence můžou nejvíc. Úvodní sekundy alba zkouší naši obrazotvornost, intrem Perception by mohla začínat Anathema, blízko to má také k Voices a jejich posmutnělým vizím. Ale postupně se propadáme do studenějších vrstev, které ústí do cizoty prázdné studny. Síla netkví v syrovosti, ta je nutným, ale očekávaným prvkem blackmetalové nahrávky. Spíš jsme nuceni obdivovat techniky, které black změkčují a vyvažují jeho nekompromisnost atmosférickými vsuvkami. Návodem je už zmiňovaný otevírák Perception, který je vhodnou vstupní branou do jejich světa. Naznačuje, že teď není správný čas vytahovat mazanice na obličej a brousit hřeby na křiváku. Jejich použití by mohlo být trapné. I ty nejortodoxnější skladby, mezi které řadím Without Conscience, mají nadžánrový přesah a nesnesou jenom jedno oblečení. Je to podobné jako u nekonformní tvorby Akercocke, kterou je přes zřetelné vlivy těžké přísně identifikovat.

Album má z celkového pohledu zajímavý rytmus. Pravidelně instalované kratší a instrumentální skladby C.A.F.O. Lockdown, Bissonnete a Nihilophobia porušují řád a rozjetou náladu alba, svou uvolněností a mírností vytvářejí oddychová zákoutí s představou prázdného, deštivého odpoledne. Někdy jsou blíž k doomu a jako mezihry tvoří hráze v plynutí seriozních skladeb. Vždy je nakonec utne okovaná černá rukavice a stvrdí platnost rčení o jepičím životě. Tohle album má tendenci růst. Postupně se v něm otevírají nové prameny pocitů a jejich prožití slibuje zábavu na delší čas. Urbain se mi svým debutem trefili do srdce, kde kromě zajímavých nápadů dali vzpomenout i na řadu klasických melodramatiků.

Rating: 80/100

Reviewed by: Sorgh

Review from Black Metal Daily

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 09:37:19 +0100

From: Black Metal Daily

Published: July 29, 2023

Original Link

Footsteps trudge listlessly down concrete, barely making a sound, barely existing at all. For nobody here is truly alive, but merely moving; here in that place where what could be and could have been the beautiful whisper of a soft breeze through green leaves… is the soft illusory hum of motor, engine, turbine, and rubber on asphalt. There is beauty here, but what is beauty, if not Perception, a lie, a grace to the ever failing structure? Pale wards of love exchange failure, crumbling to exquisite entropy, as the piano narrates. Poignant sorrow, carried by the overarching melody and clean expressions. There is rage, too; embodied in wraithian utterances, cores blackened. And grandiosity, pride, the hubris of humanity, apocalyptically epic and brassened, heralding the beautiful fall of an indulgent epoch.

Indulge we did, at the gentle captivity of the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation, swooning in intoxicated delirium, safe, a momentary hallucinatory respite from reality before spiraling into that which is… Without Conscience. Beneath the surface an indifferent cadence blossoms into a pitched vortex of violence, voices, voices of metropolitan dystopia; beasts roaring agony and rage, strings screaming, and tragedy cresting on the periphery of the wake. The momentum here rarely falters, such is the cacophonous pull of that void where once there once stood an ethic, peace found only briefly in the very eye of the storm. Through it we fall into limbo, into Lockdown, disoriented, deactivated, shackled with psychic bonds of fear, and from this consenting prison we kneel and submit.

Thus, we are emptied; isolated unto ourselves in chasms of despair, radiating need and toxicity, the slow and steady pulse of the opiate heart in freefall, anguished wails of guitar lamenting a desperately profound loss. Such grandiose orchestrations are built, such roaring rage is wrought from this seed of emptiness and depression, the core of a living death, blasted against the shores of the lorned, abandoned, forsaken, shepherded worms of misery. Culture is revealed as nothing but A Soul Purged. Everybody, and every body, is an abyss; cast aside, valued only vacuums prostituted into the Bissonnet track and the traffic of lechery, power, and abuse. Invisible is the soul, and unmistakable is the agony, yet without we are all unseeing, unseeing of the Unseen, they for whom existence is naught but suffering and rape. Every moment is a step away from light, every morning is a mourning step into the abyss.

Finally, what of the observer, the numbed witness, that hollowed wolf of the city of perdition? Despite all of this horror, the vast sprawl of urban hell seeping into every pore and neuron, hope struggles. That human capacity for delusion and fantasy, driven by a great fear of nothingness, the fear of accepting the reality of nothingness, a delusive Nihilophobia. One clings to this feeble strand, a solitary sprout of faith which barely manages to squeeze upward through a crack in the concrete and filth, only to be crushed under the heel of a merciless reality, the final ultimate acknowledgement at the moment of death: ………. There is No God To Greet Me. In the end, there is nothing, a halt, a void. A Soul Purged.

// information //

URBAIN hails from the dystopian borough of Houston, Texas. Dysanthropic expressions are leveled by the conglomerate of Andrew Caruana (also WILLS DISSOLVE) with songwriting, guitars, bass, backing vocals, production; Branson Heinz (also WILLS DISSOLVE) with concept, songwriting, lyrics, drums, bass; West Maddox (also OVNEV) with concept, songwriting, guitars, backing vocals; Shaurabh Nandy with orchestral arrangements, keys, and synth; Jerik Thibodeaux (also FATHER RUST and GOLGOTHAN) with lyrics, vocals; assist with additional programming and voice by Nick Block (also WILLS DISSOLVE).

Sporadic alluded comparisons with various conceptual and sonic rationales include: ULVER, VOICES, WHITE WARD, MOURNING BY MORNING, and LORNA SHORE or WORM SHEPHARD (or any comparable symphonic deathcore… don’t be dissuaded, it has something to do with the vocal and synth combination on occasion but there are no breakdowns, and the project remains specifically black metal).

A Soul Purged is available NOW. Hypnotic Dirge Records and URBAIN Bandcamp are the decayed access vectors. Crumbling dystopian articles being offered are CD and vinyl LP (to be announced).

Review from Wonderbox Metal

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 16:10:51 +0100

From: Wonderbox Metal

Published: July 25, 2023

Original Link

Urbain are a black metal band from the US and this is their debut album.

With a description of urban black metal, and a recommendation for fans of Emperor, White Ward, early Dimmu Borgir, and Cradle of Filth, I was intrigued to hear what Urbain had to offer. The fact that the band contain members of Ovnev and Wills Dissolve was further reason, if any were needed.

It turns out that the band references above are a good starting point for Urbain’s music, letting the listener know that A Soul Purged walks worlds both in the past and the present. To this list I’d also add bands such as Limbonic Art, Anguis Dei, Numenorean, and Necronautical as well. There’s a touch of Imperial Triumphant here too, spiritually, if not musically.

Across A Soul Purged‘s running time Urbain craft bleak soundscapes of dystopian existence. The band’s symphonic black metal is well-written, and combines the ancient templates of the style set down in the early 90s, with a more contemporary vision for the genre. Urbain take in an urban outlook and include modern touches in their sound, resulting in a fusion of old and new that conveys their vision of societal breakdown well.

A Soul Purged has a duration of 41 minutes, but despite having nine tracks, there are only actually five songs here. Four are interludes, each lasting no more than two minutes in total. However, before you immediately turn off, (as I almost did), here these interludes have a lot more musical value and merit than most, which is a rare thing to behold, (although I still question why some of them just weren’t included as part of the song that they’re obviously the intro for). They also succeed in contributing a post-black metal feel to the album.

There’s a diversity of character across the album, with each track portraying a different facet of civil decay or urban horror. Darkly atmospheric, and draped in sorrow and despair, A Soul Purged is a near-lightless record that nonetheless finds shading and colour amidst the misery and woe. The album’s orchestral elements do much to add these layered textures, as do the rich guitar leads and solos. It’s clear that Urbain know what they’re doing with their music.

The vocals consist of harsh high pitched screams, deeper daemonic growls, and occasionally expressive clean singing. It’s a delivery that’s as diverse as the music is, and I like what the singers are capable of.

A Soul Purged is a satisfying album of old-school symphonic black metal, with a modern twist.

Highly recommended.

Review from Lack of Lies

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 17:24:16 +0100

From: Lack of Lies

Published: July 19, 2023

Original Link

Einen äußerst interessanten und authentischen Vertreter des 3rd Wave Black Metal, stellt das Quintett URBAIN aus dem Südwesten Houstons dar. Mit ihrem Erstschlag "A Soul Purged" gehen die Novizen auf die Wesenheit Mensch mit all ihren Unzulänglichkeiten und den Verfall ihrer Werte, speziell im urbanen Umfeld ein. Bedächtig, teils aggressiv, aber zumeist in den mittleren Tempi angesiedelt, zieht man seine Bahnen im Dunstkreis, des gotisch angehauchten Schwarzmetalls, im melodischen Knuspermantel. Die ausladend epischen Symphonien, die Keyboarder und Sounddesigner Shaurabh Nandy dem Debüt an seiner elektronischen Werkbank aufdrückte, sind durchaus prägend, dennoch fungieren sie in erster Linie als schmückendes, harmonisch-apokalyptisches Beiwerk.

Mit leichtem Hang zum Melodramatischen haben die selbsternannten Pioniere des Urban Black Metal üppig ausgestaltete, instrumentale Passagen mit in ihr Erstlingswerk aufgenommen. Zieht man von den neun Tracks die vier Interludien/Prologe ab, kommt "A Soul Purged" nämlich lediglich auf fünf vollwertige Black Metal Kompositionen. Mit Lauflängen von zumeist über sieben Minuten bekommt das Auditorium dennoch einen satten, etwas über 40-minütigen Überblick, über das Schaffen und Wirken des US-amerikanischen Zusammenschlusses der schwarzen Mächte. Das toxische, oftmals langgezogene und extrem gallige Gekreisch von Black Metal Kotztüte Jerik Thibodeaux schafft eine düstere Ambient Atmosphäre, die perfekt mit dem kunstvoll harmonisch gehaltenen Gitarrenwerk, der beiden Saitenhexer Andrew Caruana (zusätzlich Bass) und West Maddox korrespondiert. Ihre Backing Vocals werden häufig als zweite cleane oder chorale Spur mit eingebracht. Branson Heinzs rumpelnde Drumworks untermalen hierbei die anklagende bis melancholische Stimmung, die URBAIN 1.0 von Anfang an auf sein Auditorium überträgt.

Selten wird, wie beim Titeltrack, für längere Zeit das Gaspedal so richtig durchgedrückt. Die Produktion zu "A Soul Purged", bei der eher der doomig-melodische Gedanke, anstatt der purer Aggressivität im Vordergrund steht, übernahm Gitarrist, Bassist und Background-Sänger Andrew Caruana himself. Für das Mastering der Scheibe beauftragte man hingegen Eric Park. URBAIN aus Houston wühlen mit "A Soul Purged" voller Resignation den Dreck ihrer Heimatstadt auf und führen ihn für jeden sichtbar an die Oberfläche. Das Cover ziert daher auch die garstige Skyline von Houston im Hintergrund, welche die Verkörperung des städtischen Verfalls in einer Stadt darstellt, die alle ihre Ressourcen aufgebraucht und das Leben von Millionen Menschen gekostet hat. In Bezug auf Zwangsarbeit und Sexhandel liegt Houston landesweit an zweiter Stelle. URBAIN is despair. The city takes everything!

Rating: 85/100
Reviewed by: Janko

Review from Infernal Masquerade

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 17:22:41 +0100

From: Infernal Masquerade

Published: July 10, 2023

Original Link

We sometimes wonder how the guys over at Hypnotic Dirge Records have such a similar music taste to us. From highly melancholic, to extremely experimental releases, this label has landed another winner with Urbain’s release “A Soul Purged”. Hailing from Texas, this band feels like a mixture of Vesperian Sorrow, Limbonic Art, with some splashes of Dimmu Borgir. With nine brilliant and high-octane tracks, this release is one of our early candidates for album of the year for 2023.

Opening with the release with the dramatic atmospherics of “Perception”, the mood is set very efficiently as the ravaging intensity of the guitar riffs is introduced alongside piercing shrieks and lush melodic passages. With an atmospheric transitioning track between each song, the band nicely changes the tempo and mood while preparing themselves to unleash aggressive onslaughts with a hearty balance of melody as we can hear in excellent songs like “Without Conscience” and “A Soul Purged”.

With each track being quite unique and engaging, songs like “Unseen” perfectly create that sinister atmospheric vibe of bands like Dimmu Borgir thanks to elegant arrangements and crafty guitar work. Closing with our favorite, “No God to Greet Me”, the band perfectly archives catharsis in this release with a very elegant and dramatic piece with epic clean vocal arrangements and over the top orchestrations.

As a whole, “A Soul Purged” is a very polished and expertly crafted release filled with memorable moments, both atmospheric and punishing. Blending styles seamlessly while developing a core sound, Urbain has some similarities to other bands, but yet archives a very elegant and crafty unique style. For over 43 minutes, this North American outfit manages to deliver one intense and highly melancholic release, with very few others to get close to it in terms of perfection.

Rating: 98/100

Review from Metal Temple

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 17:21:47 +0100

From: Metal Temple

Published: July 10, 2023

Original Link

From Bandcamp, “the debut album "A Soul Purged" is a cathartic scream into the void, a sonic portrait of a world spiraling into the depths of indifference and ignorance. For those with the stomach to face the unadulterated reality of our urban dystopia, URBAIN serves as a brutal yet thought-provoking guide, brandishing music as a torch to illuminate the darkness.” The album has nine songs. “Perception” is the first. Charming piano notes open the song, and there is a little tension in the background. When the riff enters, darkness follows, and when the vocals enter, its pure black magic. The aggressive sound is also tempered with sadness. “C.A.F.O.” is quite short, and passes just enough time for the listener to engage in its cold bleakness. “Without Conscience” is slower and a bit more mysterious. The band does a really nice job of thickening the background here with eerie elements that are also melodic at times. Take a listen to the gutturals after the half-way mark, and the clean guitars that follow.

Bass guitar notes segue into “Lockdown,” which bubbles under the surface with clean guitars and some tense tones. So far, the band has presented a very diverse album with a lot going on. The title track has a slow power that builds in intensity, like a fire with more and more gas poured over it. The band mixes in several different elements to keep the song robust, and the power they generate in this song takes “beast” to a whole different level. “Bissonnet” is another short song, and these in between tracks are meant to provide the listener with some time to breathe, and ponder.

“Unseen” is another slow, intense song, with brief moments of gorgeous melodies to temper the stark aggression. “Nihilophobia” is just over a minute long. Alluring keyboards combine with clean guitars and bass in what can be described as a ritual of sorts. “No God to Greet Me” closes the album. This slow and emphatic song is about as hopeless as the title suggests, but also has plenty of unbridled power. Overall, this was an excellent slab of Black Metal that proves that you can still stick to the foundations of the genre, but also strike out on your own. It was diverse, powerful, touching at times, and wrapped up tightly with a black gift bow.

Rating: 8/10

Reviewed by: Dave "That Metal Guy" Campbell