Antithesis of All Flesh

The Forces of Satan label run by the one and only Infernus of the mighty Gorgoroth has, quite frankly, never impressed me all too much. I checked out samples of Black Flame and one or two others, expecting something as moving as any of Infernus' own riffs. So when I saw the update on his blog about some particularly serious, Satanic Serbians whose music he compared to traditional, melodic style a-la Dissection, I couldn't help but give it a shot.

Infernus was right about the traditional style - very grim, not-too-silly corpsepaint and not a hint of colour. Visually, they've got traditional black metal going right. As for their sound - I'd bet a hefty sum that their favourite band is Dissection. Clear influence was drawn from The Somberlain and Storm of the Light's Bane. Perhaps it's because I expected it before listening to the album, but I think that Triumfall manages to make the sound their own. There's enough substance in the songs that - when I hear it, I don't think, "Dissection knock-off," I think, "Oh, sweet. Triumfall."

The only downside to this album is a little too much consistency. Atterigner's vocals never deviate much from the black metal norm, even during his Satanic monk clean vocals. That's not to say he's a bad or even a boring vocalist. He does well keep it tasteful, and its consistency feels more uniform than plain and safe. Stellar tracks like "Skies Are the Chains" and "The Final Purification" do well to stand out, but the first three tracks kind of blend into one dark grey mess. Strange as it sounds, I don't mean that in an entirely bad way. These songs make for a pleasant background and are almost as relaxing as any ambient black metal, except that they have rougher, faster tempos, a more melodic sound, and... well, not really ambient at all. That said, the songs are mixed well, and each track seems like a logical progression from its predecessor. None of the songs are particularly bad, although "One with the Darkside Eternal" probably stands out the least. It does come back quickly enough, though. By "Rise of Pantheon," the songs started to catch my attention, again.

Though I think that Dissection is an overall better band, some of their albums had throwaway songs that were hard to ignore. Antithesis of All Flesh is never terribly weak. Every song has killer riffs; the songs just somewhat plateau early on, stylistically speaking. Really, though, this being their first full-length album, it's not surprising that the music would be a little more derivative. They're likely still finding their specific sound, and this certainly isn't a bad first effort.

All in all, Infernus found some talented musicians, here. These Serbians have a lot of potential, and I look forward to their next release, whenever that will be.

If you want something to half-pay attention to that suddenly blasts your ears with a few memorable black metal blessings from the middle to the end, or if you want to hear a Dissection-style album from a band that still manages to maintain their own identity and sense of style, give this one a listen.

Strongest tracks: "Skies Are the Chains," "The Final Purification," "Within Their Midnight"

Weakest track: "One with the Darkside Eternal"