Keys to the Astral Gates and Mystic Doors

Illegible (yet highly creative) logo, corpsepaint, and a black & white photo contrasted to hell: the album cover of Keys to the Astral Gates and Mystic Doors' self-titled debut lets you know what to expect. But regardless of whether the band is going for a parody or ode to 90's black metal, they've produced a surprisingly enjoyable demo.

Keys (I'm not typing all that out again) opens with Knell, a ~1.5 minute intro track, that begins with a fuzzy hum and is then joined by the echoing of church bells. As soon as Lighting of the Treasured Candles, perhaps the highlight of the demo, begins, it's the black metal tremolo picking and blast beats you'd expect.

The first thing that sticks out is that the lo-fi recording sounds "just right." There are plenty of newer black metal bands with poor recording quality, even intentionally so, that miss the proper balance, and end up hurting rather than helping their sound. Keys finds the right balance, with all the instruments and vocals still clearly audible and melding together in a harmonious fuzz.

Although the opening tremolo riff is good, I figured I was in for ~20 minutes of more of the same. The band made me eat my words. Not much later, the blast beats slow down to an almost punk-ish beat as the guitar switches to a more melodic riff. There's actual variety here. The band even slows down for a doom-like portion and a synth break between the solid and more traditional black metal tremolo riffs. Keys seem very conscious of what they are doing and mix things up before there's a chance for anything to get repetitive.

Is this a groundbreaking or innovative demo? Definitely not. But the band succeeds where no small amount of black metal projects fail: truly capturing the 90's essence while still being an enjoyable listen.