Martyrium

Antestor, the notorious Christian band, opens their 'official' music history with Martyrium. I was directed to this album in another music forum, and decided to look into this band. I was not impressed by what I heard, but I decided they did have some musical skills.

Overall, this album is quite slow, and quite easy to get bored of. This album is not so much a black metal album, but gothic style doom. The use of keyboards is prevalent, and maybe even overpowering. The guitar is very distorted, and has a scratchy tone. The guitar tone is comparable to many black metal bands. The drum work is actually not bad, and is fitting to the music. The vocals are fitting to the music as well. The vocalist uses deep, death metal style screams. There are also black metal style growls. The one thing Antestor has going for them in this release is a 'depressive' sound. There is a woman singer used on this album as well, she jumps out at you in some tracks.

I have a hard time listening to this album because of the lyrical content. These guys are really, really trying to convert you when you listen to their music. The whole 'Christianity' thing is way over bearing, and I am forced to skip past them. I don't want this to sound like an anti-Christian rave, I get annoyed when any religion does this.

Antestor is a decent band, but has its weaknesses. This can be said about many bands, in general. I think if they lost the keyboards, and decided to write music in a more secular standpoint, they would be better. I still recommend you check this out for yourself.