Fall of the Bastards "Dusk of an Ancient Age" CD
[Intolerant Messiah]
Raw black metal from Portland, Oregon with tons of blasting speeds as well as some excellent moderately paced breaks that occasional have a thrashier essence happening. The songs and the riffs are pretty fucking killer, but the recording bugs me a little bit. It's rugged, but not exactly in that intentionally primal way that the genre is known for. I'm sure they were going for something unpolished with a bite, and for the most part it meets that, but the guitar parts that get higher up on the neck or are more note based get a little too choppy and rough for my tastes. I can live with it because the mix is balanced and the songs are very well done, but I think a slightly more efficient recording could make an immeasurable difference for these guys. The bass playing and drumming are both exceptional for this style, though... as the percussion never stops moving between interesting fills and patterns, and the bass parts don't simply mimic the guitars and fall by the wayside at all. "Otherwise Blank Expression" is slightly slower and more straightforward, with some elements that bring to mind the early Norwegian classics without sounding like a copy of that style. "Dawn (The Mourning After)", the closing instrumental, is all acoustic and also has a Scandinavian sort of flare, which is an unexpected way to close the disc. The four bonus live tracks were recorded in early-2003 and sound alright, but have a lot of flanging sort of compression (possibly from a cassette transfer or something). The guitar tone seems a little thicker, but there's so little detail due to the muddiness that I'm not that into the live songs so much. The layout's pretty cool, using lots of fairly typical apocalyptic artwork and decorative fonts, but when it's handled right I tend to be a sucker for that stuff. I enjoy the bleak expressions of the lyrics a lot as well. "In the wake of death. Now into the void we go. Can't gasp for breath. Beneath the blood of the earth. A trodden path of turmoil. Seeming all alone. A world we know. Set in stone. Descend the angel of life. How she harms me. Now this angel will burn. And be buried in the blanket of war..." The disc is a little long and in some ways one-sided as a whole, but I like it, and I'd recommend the band to diehard black metal fans for sure. It probably won't satisfy all such listeners, but it's worth a shot. (7/10)
Running time - 48:29, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Intrinsical Lost, Otherwise Blank Expression]
Intolerant Messiah - http://www.intolerantmessiah.com

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