Sumerlands

"I’m built in pain, forged into flames
I’m here to burn it all down
Formed from ash and coal, born without soul
Here to shake your holy ground

Hear the cries of martyrs, sound the angel’s horn
Await your final judgment, your fate will soon be sworn

War and tribulation
Open the Seven Seals..."

So begins, in full shimmering glory, Philadelphia's Sumerlands, a broken-off, spatially roving satellite piece of classic heavy metal revival without tropes or tongue-in-cheek floridity discernible in its members' original, mainstay formations...not that there's anything wrong in the likes of Phil Swanson's Briton Rites and Hour of 13, or ax men and bassist John Powers/Arthur Risk/Brad Raub's War Hungry and Eternal Champion, along with drummer Justin DeTore's Magic Circle.

(Bear in mind, these somewhat divergent, yet comparably rocking and legit acts' net worth have all, in turn, been valiantly lauded, one way or another, be it through shabby third rate appraisal - think any one metal site devoted to prosaically sophomoric feedback i.e. Metal-Temple readily comes to mind) or our very own heavy metal HQ in the sage Metal Archives.)

Hence, unlike Hour of 13's intermittently hard-driven and alchemical doom variance, or Eternal Champion's stentorian and arcane, pounding sway, Sumerlands adheres, for the most part (i.e. first seven songs) to a sinuous tidal wave of teeming, rushing musicianship akin to Rhodes/Lee era Ozzy Osbourne, with, surely, a smattering of coordinated and polished Mercyful Fate - excluding, praise Odam, King Diamond's zany vocal antics.

Latter-day confederates, through pair of wicked and eternally wizened openers in "The Seventh Seal" & "The Guardian", consist of Haunt, Icarus Witch, Idle Hands and In Solitude (RIP) through wistfully rampant and lugubrious guitar harmonies combined with circuitous, oft shuffling rhythmic tendencies - rest assured Sumerlands eschews subliminally "suicidal" PMRC rufflage. These prosper greatly from the album's crystalline production, which cozily relegates Phil's spectral and cavernous, echoed chanting coddiwomple low in the mix.

Choral arrangements, particularly on "The Guardian", feature a paradoxically rare breed of occultic euphony and grit:

"I'll never be forsaken, you're always by my side
Whenever I'm forsaken, always be there by my side...

Onward, "Timelash" and "Blind" stir into a frenzy of ruefully bleating contentment. In a similarly kooky vein as Flight's "The Pendulum", "Blind" infuses a weirdly upbeat televised game show evoking vibe which makes for provocative midpoint to Sumerlands' most versatile song, the clean and wispy "Haunt Forever". Get a load of its regal induction:

"All I ever wanted was some peace for you
So tied up in the chaos no matter what you do
I can see that darkness follows you wherever you are
It's so clear to me, I bear the similar scar."

Dig my apology for such lyrical abundance - aren't the words deadly enough? - but I can hardly wait for Sumerlands' next effort - one which pointedly omits aimless titular meandering, the type which crowds an otherwise stunning debut (to its credit, however minimal and irrelevant, makes for sleepily atmospheric fare). Alternately, strange bedfellow "Spiral Infinite", with its raucous and gruff quicksilver demeanour, proffers a jumpy contradiction to "Lost My Mind", which exposes valedictorian Swanson overtures top-sided by hard-wired and insane flash-in-the-tomb lead guitar. Actually, throughout the former, he kicks backs with uncharacteristically shouty delivery.

Minus the bland flumadiddle inherent to "Sumerlands" proper, consider this melodiously enchanting and crepuscular humdinger a modern-day cult classic worth its weight in religious entreaties, final obmutescence notwithstanding.