Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2016 21:42:51 GMT -6
O, Majestic Winter - Defiling the Serpent's Temple
Year: 2009
Genre: Experimental Black Metal (with grind influences)
This is an album that has received extremely mixed reviews. Some people love it; others hate it. I think I fall somewhere in the middle, leaning a little more towards love than hate. Defiling the Serpent's Temple is a truly bizarre and otherworldly album. That is to be expected from experimental black metal after all, but this is just beyond strange. The band plays very loud, lo-fi black metal that becomes very noisy in its heaviest sections, almost sounding like some sort of noisegrind. There are softer sections that are mixed in (sometimes haphazardly) as well. Add to it some questionable compositional decisions (such as weird synth sounds and a couple 'core-style guitar parts), and you have this album in a nutshell.
Most of the songs are structured in a completely unorthodox and unpredictable way. "Christ is LORD, There is No Other" is an excellent example of the transition-less nature of this music. The song begins with a basic guitar riff and basic drumming with spoken vocals over it. This continues until about a minute into the song, when all the instruments drop out, the vocalist says "witchcraft", and then the band takes off into a fury of loud blastbeating and distorted screaming, with riffs that were seemingly written with little consideration of music theory. That section ends just as abruptly as it began. "The Dead in Christ Shall Arise First" features an odd synth at the beginning that sounds like it's a cell phone ringtone. It is eventually met with another grindy guitar riff and more screaming. The synth continues to play in the background and it sounds out-of-place. A heavy and noisy part of "Caverns of Unspeakable Darkness" is interrupted by a lighthearted, symphonic synth. "Watchtowers of the Holy Kingdom" features a digital trumpet that accompanies a long breakdown at the beginning of the song, that, once again, is abruptly replaced by a quick noisefest. This experimentation can create a lot of confusion that can kill the moods that the album tries to create during your first few listens, but once you start to get used to it and you know what will happen, you can start to get more out of it.
Some of the songs, however, are a little less weird. "To Praise the Eternal - Psalm 91" is simply a grindy black metal song with some typical symphonic synths to go with it. "Death's Frozen Grip" is a slower track, once again with some nice synths and nothing that is too crazy. "Calm of Winter" is a soft, clean interlude that builds atmosphere. There is a degree of coherency in this album, but not a lot.
One thing that I think the band does well is atmosphere. The first track, "Like an Owl Among the Ruins" creates a very dark and foreboding feeling and is frankly one of the best album intros I have ever heard. The aforementioned "Calm of Winter" creates a nice, calm (as you would expect) mood later on in the album, in contrast to the chaos that surrounds it. Some of the songs feature softer, atmospheric parts within them, such as the part of "The Battle of Frostvale" that has whispered vocals and clean guitars. The symphonic intro of "To Praise the Eternal" is another example. Even the lighthearted synth section in the middle of "Caverns of Unspeakable Darkness" that I talked about before creates atmosphere, even though it doesn't make a lot of sense. The band really did a good job in that department.
Overall, it's hard to come to a conclusion on this one. I enjoy it, but I don't listen to it much, because I have to be in the mood for something strange in order to really like it.
78/100
-CrimsonWarrior
The physical copies have become kind of rare.
Buy/stream on Bandcamp:
omajesticwinter.bandcamp.com/
Year: 2009
Genre: Experimental Black Metal (with grind influences)
This is an album that has received extremely mixed reviews. Some people love it; others hate it. I think I fall somewhere in the middle, leaning a little more towards love than hate. Defiling the Serpent's Temple is a truly bizarre and otherworldly album. That is to be expected from experimental black metal after all, but this is just beyond strange. The band plays very loud, lo-fi black metal that becomes very noisy in its heaviest sections, almost sounding like some sort of noisegrind. There are softer sections that are mixed in (sometimes haphazardly) as well. Add to it some questionable compositional decisions (such as weird synth sounds and a couple 'core-style guitar parts), and you have this album in a nutshell.
Most of the songs are structured in a completely unorthodox and unpredictable way. "Christ is LORD, There is No Other" is an excellent example of the transition-less nature of this music. The song begins with a basic guitar riff and basic drumming with spoken vocals over it. This continues until about a minute into the song, when all the instruments drop out, the vocalist says "witchcraft", and then the band takes off into a fury of loud blastbeating and distorted screaming, with riffs that were seemingly written with little consideration of music theory. That section ends just as abruptly as it began. "The Dead in Christ Shall Arise First" features an odd synth at the beginning that sounds like it's a cell phone ringtone. It is eventually met with another grindy guitar riff and more screaming. The synth continues to play in the background and it sounds out-of-place. A heavy and noisy part of "Caverns of Unspeakable Darkness" is interrupted by a lighthearted, symphonic synth. "Watchtowers of the Holy Kingdom" features a digital trumpet that accompanies a long breakdown at the beginning of the song, that, once again, is abruptly replaced by a quick noisefest. This experimentation can create a lot of confusion that can kill the moods that the album tries to create during your first few listens, but once you start to get used to it and you know what will happen, you can start to get more out of it.
Some of the songs, however, are a little less weird. "To Praise the Eternal - Psalm 91" is simply a grindy black metal song with some typical symphonic synths to go with it. "Death's Frozen Grip" is a slower track, once again with some nice synths and nothing that is too crazy. "Calm of Winter" is a soft, clean interlude that builds atmosphere. There is a degree of coherency in this album, but not a lot.
One thing that I think the band does well is atmosphere. The first track, "Like an Owl Among the Ruins" creates a very dark and foreboding feeling and is frankly one of the best album intros I have ever heard. The aforementioned "Calm of Winter" creates a nice, calm (as you would expect) mood later on in the album, in contrast to the chaos that surrounds it. Some of the songs feature softer, atmospheric parts within them, such as the part of "The Battle of Frostvale" that has whispered vocals and clean guitars. The symphonic intro of "To Praise the Eternal" is another example. Even the lighthearted synth section in the middle of "Caverns of Unspeakable Darkness" that I talked about before creates atmosphere, even though it doesn't make a lot of sense. The band really did a good job in that department.
Overall, it's hard to come to a conclusion on this one. I enjoy it, but I don't listen to it much, because I have to be in the mood for something strange in order to really like it.
78/100
-CrimsonWarrior
The physical copies have become kind of rare.
Buy/stream on Bandcamp:
omajesticwinter.bandcamp.com/