Roars from the Old Serpent's Paradise

I love the intro, the title track, - that is fairly original. I love the way that it degenerates into an almost trance-like fuzz and then kicks in the with the second track, Aeon's Corpse. This track really gets the listener's attention - and keeps it all the way through, with the many changes and different riffs, that all work together. I like the slow ending on it as well, which leads into the next track. This track is also very good - with the high-pitch tremolo part over the top. On 'Phtisique', I love the drone that carries on throughout the whole song underneath the actual track. I like the trance like aspect of this song as well, with the soft part, then the metal, then another soft part then metal again, all adding something extra to the mix. The one problem with this song is that the two note chord progression stays practically the same throughout the whole song - which does get repetitive and slightly boring. It also follows the second track's chord progression too much as well - with a note, and then the note below it, then back to the first note. 'Taphos' starts really good, but it does get boring nearer the end. 'March Of The Tyrannic' is a brilliant ending track, although to me it sounds as though it would have been better as an intro track rather than an outo track.

There were a few problems throughout though - firstly, there is no variation at all, so the album does get slightly boring by the end. For example, the vocals are always the same tone all the way through - the growling is actually very decent - but there is no variation from this growling. Another problem that I found was that the drums sounded programmed, which is most evident in 'Aeon's Corpse' at around 2:15 in to the song. I am not sure whether they actually are or not, but I am pretty sure that they are. Although people do differ in their opinions of programmed drums, I am not too keen myself.

Overall, it is a lot better than most of the Black Metal that is being released today and, for anyone into Black Metal, it is well worth checking out. The production is very good, as like in newer Deathspell Omega, and I think that suits the music very well.