First cult Black Oath's album finally re-released, includes 3 unreleased bonus tracks. Completely revisited layout.
"With your strength I am fearless. Lucifer be praised thy name..."
As true as it was preached. Black Oath consists of three individuals paying tribute to the essence of the genre often referred to as "epic doom metal", and they do it well by manifesting their thoughts, ideals, and skills in this piece of...dare I almost not call it an "album" as the word would do no justice to the message hiding behind the rhythms and tunes of this...okay, album. Even though it may not strike you as "new", it's certainly innovative and interesting.
The opening track, 'Death as Liberation', works very well as an opener. What it gives you is what you would do right in expecting from the rest of the album and melts perfectly into the track 'Growth of a Star Within'. If you were to take this album and listen to it song by song, you would probably lose track of the whole idea that is 'The Third Aeon', so if I were in your position (and I have been), take your time and listen through the whole record and then you will understand what it is I am talking about.
After the short (but necessary) passage that is the title track, you will be cast into 'Evil Sorcerer' and (my personal favorite) 'Horcell the Temple', the latter I suspect being a reference to the Abbey of Thelema in Sicily once owned by Aleister Crowley, as it also used to be referred to as the Whore's Cell. If this is not the case, and I really don't know what "Horcell" means, but nevertheless, the catchy anguish-filled tune 'Horcell the Temple' probably serves as the most popular song of this band, I would guess. The album ends with the most ambitious composition of the album, 'The Black Oath'. Nothing will be held back, and when you listen to the violins covered behind the sound of lightning ending the song and thus the album, you are, if but only for a few seconds, almost somewhere else...
After spoiling this album with compliments and warming words, I will present to you the points that through my point of view might be considered...the downsides.
Even though the church organ is a nice touch every here and there, it sometimes gets overdone. I perfectly understand why they are using it and the atmosphere it creates for the album, but if you are going to play live you will probably not live up to what the album has created for us.
The vocals, good and emotional as they are, still could have been better. Don't get me wrong, they are PERFECT at times in the right places, but at some parts maybe the vocalist should try and explore different levels. Most doom records I know often fail because of uninteresting vocalists. There is room for more energy.
Otherwise, a great album and one of the highlights of doom metal from 2011.
Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=kXyccNrD-dI
