Revelations

Shores of Sheol is not just another one-man band that wants to play “kvlt” metal, but really has some quality. Demo Revelations is pretty short release, with only three songs, but they are all very enjoyable. I must firstly praise guitar work, which is really good, especially if you compare it to some other underground black metal band that think if they scratch out the guitar they will came to satisfying result and sound even darker. No, there is no need for this in SoS case. Guitar lines are very well structured for black metal like this and also well performed; there is no doubt about that. All songs in general are very well composed and you don’t get tired from repetition. Surprisingly also drum programming is very well done. I expected much more artificial and monotonous sound, but it seems that there was put lot of work into that.

And here comes the flaws. First are here vocals. They sound very good in some parts, but to be completely honest, they could have been done much better. They are recorded twice which lead us to very strange result. Also there is an echo effect which doesn’t fits in really. The vocal problem is also hugely connected with second flaw which is production. Although I usually don’t rate production when it comes to demo releases, I really must say something about it this time. Vocals are put too much in the forefront and are too loud which puts guitars in the background and makes them somehow “imperceptible”. I won’t judge the originality because it is really hard to give fair opinion about that nowadays, especially when it comes to black metal.

To conclude, this is good release, which has some flaws, but I am sure that this flaws will be soon gone with new releases. I think that Shores of Sheol is band with great potential and I hope that they will know how to use it.

Continuing the logical progression Sathur has made since his first release, getting darker and more like Rotting Christ, Necromancia, and Varathron (but grimmer), Sathur manages three things: melody, aggression, and almost a mystical "kvltness". The guitar has enough "oomph" to carry the melodic passage, though significantly rustier than his more recent material, and the vocals are finally done tastefully enough, reminiscent of Beherit's vocals on Drawing Down the Moon.

In fact, this release is VERY reminiscent of Drawing Down the Moon. It has the same occult mysteriousness of the aforementioned album, and with similar production values (vocals overpower everything.) That's not necessarily bad, and makes the melody more subtle, and eventually enough that it sneaks on you. In fact, in the song I Rise, Sathur steals a line from Iron Maiden (from the song Hallowed be Thy Name). That's not surprising... Sathur has had a love of such stylings.

Overall, if his future direction can be determined from this demo, and we can expect this (but more produced) in the future, then all is well in the morbid domain of Shores of Sheol.