Aṇaṅku

This is very excellent black/death metal and about as effective a blend of the two as I have heard. Often times with these blends you get the worst of both worlds. Too often these days it's all the plasticky crap sound and mindless riff salad you get with modern death metal seasoned with the cringe-worthy posturing and minor-arpeggiated pastiche of today's black metal wrapped into one sorry package on Nuclear Blast and I couldn't be less moved. I, Voidhanger found a winner here in Jarno Nurmi's Serpent Ascending.

Jarno here puts all the drive and muscle of a seasoned death metal act behind the keen melodic sense and pure vibe you see in great black metal. I love the production too. You could dock a point perhaps because the drums do sound programmed but that's the only complaint I really have as far as that goes. The guitar sound is great; like all great black metal guitar sounds it becomes a space that you inhabit while the album unfolds rather than just an angry loud guitar. He's gotten to be a very effective composer of relatively short songs too. Just about every single one of these riffs is extremely memorable and their efficacy is amplified by effective track structures that create clear evocative journeys within the songs, The guitar work is consistently interesting to listen to and Jarno also makes good use of countermelodies both in the subordinate right-panned guitar and the bass to add depth as needed. He doesn't shy away from use of clean vocals to memorable effect.

This has all been a description that is fairly removed from what the music actually conveys, but all these factors combine to allow the songs to be effective conveyors of emotion. I'm not going to psychoanalyze the lyrics, but sadness at the alienation from nature and magical experiences we all experience in today's world birthing a defiance and a willingness to embrace the occult and forms of darkness, these are things I feel here listening to this album. I relate, who doesn't, and here I feel it viscerally!

Is there room to improve? Sure. There's a little that separates an album like this from one of the true classics. A willingness to be a little rougher around the edges, maybe? He never sounds like he's being pushed in any of this material. He has the skill, but maybe not the ambition to match. He could also stand to pay as much attention to the drumwork as he does the other instruments and vocals, which are all performed and arranged excellently. Perhaps he could bring a guest drummer in. If I was to be really pedantic too, I thought the opening to Northern Delirium sounded a little goofy in a way that was a mood whiplash. Even Morbid Angel had their Angels of Disease though.

All in all, I enjoyed this album immensely and return to it fairly frequently. I hope this project continues. It deserves a lot more support than it's gotten, so I encourage you to at least give this one a listen.