| Reviews for Blood Stained Dusk's Black Faith Inquisition |
| Inqusition unsuccessful - 55% |
| Written by autothrall
on November 4th, 2009
|
| I'm not typically a huge fan of USBM, but there have of course been exceptions like Leviathan and a few of the Xasthur records that have blown me away and my perception of what we are capable of in a genre I tend to associate with a primarily European stamp of quality. Blood Stained Dusk is not going to change this for myself, but what they offer here is a competent album of atmospheric black metal with some gothic elements. This being their third album, it really harkens back to the mid to late 90s when bands would mesh the sweeping gothic keyboards into a pretty straightforward, savage black metal snarl with blast beats and driving guitars. I reminisced of very early Moonspell or Cradle of Filth. There are certain tracks on this album that are of noticeably better quality than others. For example, I thought "Of Wolf's Blood" was a bore, but "Astrum Obscurum" was a decent track. I especially like that obvious nod to Bathory in the latter. The mix here on the album is okay, I do feel like the leads and a few of the guitar rhythms are too weak sounding. The drums are fast and energetic but the sound gets lost, I feel like it's on a different wavelength and doesn't always agree with the rest of the instrumentation (the sound, not the beats themselves). The vocals are pretty well done here, they sound appropriately vile and very up front to the record. I also like the narrative/ritual bits, and they have a nice eye for cover art. Not a lot more I can say. Few of the songs on this album were able to catch my attention, but if you're enamored with the gothic-tinged black metal of the late 20th century (Ancient, Cradle of Filth, old Moonspell, etc), you may get a lot more out of this than I did. -autothrall http://www.fromthedustreturned.com |
| excellent black metal - 92% |
| Written by planiol
on May 18th, 2009
|
| Anyone who insists that there is no good black metal in the United States needs to listen to this band and then shut the hell up. Blood Stained Dusk are back and have outdone their previous works (which were quite good). This is an awesome band from the USA, playing black metal that has nothing to do with the depressed/suicidal, bedroom stuff. This band has been criticized for being an Emperor rip-off. I admit that their first full length sounds like what should have been In the Nightside Eclipse Part 2 (and anyone who likes Emperor should check it out), but they have their own sound. And this album, while still sounding like BSD, does not sound like Emperor. If I had to come up with a comparison, I would say it sounds kind of like Limbonic Art with real drums and better singing. For those who fear keyboards in metal, do not waste your time with this. BSD play a style of black metal that is heavy on the keyboards. That’s why I got the Limbonic Art comparison. For most of the time, the keyboards are loud and the drums are fast. They do slow it down sometimes though. There are some awesome parts with slower beats and clean vocals. The music has an infernal and majestic feel to it, like Emperor did in the early 90's. It’s like the soundtrack to the heavens in flames. Pest does an amazing job on this album. His black metal vocals add to the infernal feeling of the music, and his clean vocals help to create the majestic parts. He sounds like Garm when he actually sings, and so some parts remind me of Borknagar or Arcturus. But unlike those two bands, this is black metal through and through. The other band members contribute vocals as well, including their dead singer. Some of Dageth’s vocal tracks were used posthumously on the recording of this album, making him like a black metal Tupac. My only complaint is that the intro is too long. It’s a spoken word thing that goes on for about five minutes. I usually just skip it when I listen to the album. Even skipping the first track, there is still at least an hour of quality black metal on here. The production is great too. I have to give additional kudos to this band, for playing music that still sounds evil with a clear production. This is definitely worth hearing, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes metal. |