This is better than I had anticipated. Fairly typical melodic black metal akin to what you might hear coming from Sweden, but from Switzerland instead. There's a lot of moderate speed and tremolo picking, some slower breaks, midrange vocal growls with some higher screaming, a few simple solos, that sort of thing. The intro to "Drowning" really stands out, much slower and more blatantly melodic, and the picking patterns sound more like something that I'd expect to hear from a melodic metallic hardcore band than a black metal band. Nice work, though. As a whole the track is far more diverse, bringing in some clean guitars and tempo changes that create a more personal atmosphere than is common for the genre. "Terror" is the other stylistic standout, also straying from the tremolo picking with some rhytmic death metal patterns and distorted bass. Of course the drums are really thin and rigid, which is a little bit annoying (especially the snare and the cymbals), but the guitar tone is pretty heavy and well handled, and the bass is slightly audible in the distance. There's too much low-end to the guitars, and the vocals have a strange distance to them, but it could be worse. The CD comes in a slim jewel case with basic packaging. The front cover isn't bad, a simple image of an eclipse or something with plain text across it. No lyrics are included, just a somewhat silly band photo complete with makeup and chains, a thanks list, etc. With song titles like "Winds of Death" and "Terror" I'm assuming the content is pretty general. A better recording would help these guys out a lot. If they could nail a production along the lines of anything Naglfar's ever done they could really do something amazing I bet. The songwriting here is quite good, so they're well on their way to something more. A pleasant surprise, indeed.
[self-released]
Running time - 18:39, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Drowning, Black Domain]
Darkmoon - http://www.darkmoon.ch
