Azathoth

I contacted the band for an interview and Nick offered me to review the album. So I am, but because of the complications with my webzine I hope he doesn't reply back with those answers about the interview.

To start off, Azathoth came from the remnants of Dead Elizabeth, a Fresno, CA band I knew about a year or two ago. Now some of the members from that band came into Azathoth, playing symphonic blackened death metal. I couldn't stop listening to this EP for a while so I like it in almost every regard which I'll explain.

The EP starts with an intro, Kyle makes a beautiful classical sounding piano intro which is great.

Then we get into "In Darkest Dreams". Already pounding the listener with a guitar solos and powerful drumming. The vocals of both Nick and Kyle are top notch, demonic sounding black metal rasps and death metal grunts and growls. A little ways into the song there's a keyboard bridge with a eerie choir and some kind of chime sound (?) which sounds great, makes me think of a horror movie for some reason. Basically the highlights of the song are the powerful synth bridge and guitar solos and riffs which I know thats a poor way to describe the song but you'd have to hear it for yourself.

Then we come into "Alhazred" which starts off with deep growls and arabic sounding keys. This song has more of a Nile, Behemoth, type sound to it along with a guitar solo in the beginning and a sawtooth synth solo a little ways beyond. Then a little ways kicks in a great piano solo followed by a little melodic twin duel of the guitar and piano before bursting into more arabic sounding guitar and synth sounds. Then the double bass starts to kick it up and a few more piano solos are heard.

Now we go into "The Lament Configuration" which has a minute long sample intro before exploding into growls bells and powerful riffs and drumming. More into the song we have a breakdown in it which is slow, yet probably powerful when played live. The symphonic element of the song picks up then we go into a piano bridge which yet again sounds classical. After that the strings dominate again making it sound very epic. Afterwards comes the death metal guitar solo along with grindcore brees, which made me laugh at first.

"Amaranth" is next with another sample intro and exploding synth and guitar sounds which I guess is the beginning of all the songs so far. More bells and an interesting synth riff can be heard before going to a guitar solo. The highlight of this song is the slow part with the acoustic guitars and the flute which made me think of Ulver. Then we go into a guitar and keyboard solo which are made very well.

The EP closes with the outro, another great piano instrumental by Kyle.

What to say about this EP? I love it. USBM needs more bands like Azathoth. Lyrically the songs are long as hell, In Darkest Dreams and Amaranth deal with men being lured by women who are either dead or monsters, Alhazred obviously an HP Lovecraft theme and The Lament Configuration deals with Hellraiser. So in a nutshell, horror stories. Vocal wise, Nick and Kyle share rasps and grunts, kind of hard to tell the difference (unless you watch their videos on YouTube). The guitar, keys, bass, and drums sound superb. Like typical black metal bands, there are alot of blastbeats.

Now why isn't this thing a 100%? Keyboards are over-used. BLASPHEMY?!?!?!? Well I've heard a few people compare them to Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir because of that, and being a keyboard player myself I love it, but it is over-used. The guitars could use a little more breathing room. Honestly they remind me of a more symphonic version of Akercocke, though without the Satanism.

But in the end, amazing EP. Check it out, or buy it, if you haven't.