What would a black metal record be without a shitty synth introduction that drags on for too long and serves no purpose at all other than to delay the start of the real assault? I wish these bands would cut that shit out. But anyway, not unlike their last record, this is a strong outing of melodic black metal that offers a few new changes. For one thing, these are very long songs, most running more than seven minutes. And the material is also not so heavily rooted in speed. The bulk of these songs are moderately paced for the most part, with outbursts of speed and a lot of thrashier influences popping up at times. It's fairly straightforward black metal with a good dose of melody, raw textures, generally tactful keyboards, sneering vocals, etc. I really like their often dissonant riffing style and writing, though. There are some great acoustic breaks which, along with some general tempo changes, really help keep the lengthy songs in check. "Passage to Extinction" even throws out some brief female singing/spoken word segments. I definitely like such aspects in accordance with the incorporation of singing, acoustic guitars, and the well-developed lead lines. The recording is much rawer and not as effective as it was on the last record, though. The guitar tone is weird because it's definitely very rugged, but the harmonies and solos are smooth, and you can tell they wanted some heaviness to it... so I'm not sure why they didn't go with a more refined tone - especially since the drums are somewhat rigid and the synths are perfectly fluid. It's not a huge problem, but the overall recording sounds thin and lacks low-end (though the bass is easy to pick out). It just needs more punch. The clarity's there and they've got the writing strengths, but I think the fuller sound of the last album should have been maintained. The layout keep it simple with an "evil" cover painting, some text about the lineup and recording, not to mention proclaiming the band to be a member of the "German Black Metal Horde", etc. I don't like the fact that the back cover and the image underneath the tray don't match up with the cover art at all, but whatever. The booklet is chock full of band photos. One page per band member. And these are some of the most ridiculous black metal band shots I've ever seen. They're all wearing corpse paint, they all look like they're trying too hard, and most of them are doing silly things like breathing fire, holding skulls, or posing with weapons (Usually large sickles!?), so... I guess the band's "dark fortress" has a well kept field around it or something. It's hard to take them seriously, but the music delivers. I will say that the record is a bit long for me to handle in some respects, one or two of the tracks could definitely stand to go, but this is still a good effort worth checking out for fans of the genre. It's not totally generic but does manage to stay relatively true to the genre. Great atmosphere, too...
[Red Stream]
Running time - 68:22, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: In Morte Aeternitas, Blood of the Templars, A Fortress Dark]
Red Stream - http://www.redstream.org
