Pre-Emptive Strike: The Honor Gained and the Blood Spilled

Don't look at me, because I have no idea what the purpose of this release is. 'Pre-Emptive Strike: The Honor Gained And The Blood Spilled' is apparently the third release by Virginian black metal band Dawn Of Sorrow (even though it sounds like their negative fifth), and it really doesn't make much sense on any level, but apparently it makes enough sense to be released on a CDr with an amusingly Photoshopped cover. They might be Nazis, or Satanists, WHO KNOWS!

Dawn Of Sorrow plays a sloppy, primitive variety of somewhat thrashy, somewhat heavy-y black metal that seems to be mostly influenced by Bathory, early Mayhem, Old Funeral, and the like. On the rare occasion where the band manages to play in time with each other, it seems okay. This also happens about three times on the entire demo. The rest is a collection of blasting, tremolo riffing, screeching vocals, and an apparently drunken bassist who keeps speeding up and slowing down at random intervals and occasionally seems to be playing an entirely different song from the rest of the band. Some of the riffs seem cool, but they're buried deeply in a morass of noisy production and sloppy playing. What can be heard is good if you're really, really drunk.

The majority of it, though is noisy, thin, poorly-produced black/thrash stuff that's only really appreciable to those looking to search every nook and cranny of the USBM scene. This sounds like a lot of Virginia-area underground black metal bands, where playing in the style of black metal is sort of more important than playing music (if that makes sense), and is prone to all the same problems that plague that section of USBM. The song structures are clumsy and irregular, and movements change sort of accidentally and because the band feels like it more than with any purpose (like on 'Aryan Conquest Of The Kingdom Of Israel' where they all just decided to go into some weird lead guitar over martial drum portion, listener doesn't know what the fuck). It's a weird novelty more than something you want to listen to.

'The Honor Gained And The Blood Spilled' begins with what I assume is a sample of Dawn Of Sorrow's vocalist in a live setting, telling the crowd that the set (though this is the only live track (I think)) is dedicated to those who think that good black metal can't come from the US. This isn't exactly doing a lot to prove those people wrong. It's not fully bad, but it's pretty incoherent and a fairly unnecessary release. It's good I guess if you want to see what a lot of underground USBM sounds like these days, but it's never something you'll listen to very often. Chalk it up to a curiosity listen.