Kythrone "Kult Des Todes" LP gatefold vinyl

Perhaps the title of this review is the most interesting thing about the chock-full-'o-potential "Kult des Todes"....and this review's title isn't honestly that interesting!¡
EVERYTHING about this album looks and even sounds promising; but in the end it falls flat. While there are some almost pretty cool parts that continually emerge, that's how it always remains: 'almost' pretty cool parts. Taken one song at a time, Kythrone is pretty decent, but an album of their songs left me thinking I'd heard it all before, not only within the context of black metal, but within the confines of the album itself! It is difficult to distinguish between the songs, and not because they are monotonous or all at the exact same tempo, I guess it is just because they are actually so generic and, well....boring! For some reason, the only one that stands out for me is "Kollozal Wolves", and I can't even tell you why.
The production on this is very quiet; I had to turn my stereo up pretty loud to match the volume level of most cds. This is not to say that the production is primitive or necro, it is in fact pretty clear. So this, once turned up, will end up being typical non-necro, non-lavish black metal production. In other words, non-memorable but gets the job done.
The musicians are all competent, some parts even displaying a ripping proficiency. It is just that there is absolutely nothing that stands out. The vocals sound cool, at first. But for some indefinable reason, they become boring after about 2 songs. A lot of echo is used, not to a point of distortion, and the vocals are done in a, just like everything else, very middle-of-the-road style.
Song titles are great, album title is great, photos and cd layout(which all may serve to unsettle politically correct whiners, by the way, at least those who object to Nazi references) are great...but the songs themselves just fail to impress. I would've given them less points, but the whole package is pretty cool, so I gave a few extra for that. Maybe I've heard too much black metal, and maybe this will really impress others, but for me "Kult des Todes" has none of the FIRE one would expect from South America, nor the icy coldness that I think Kythrone was trying to convey. It IS a decent album, there is nothing insulting, false, or bad on it; I certainly hope that they can up the song-writing quality in future, because it is quite obvious they have potential. If you have a lot of extra money, give this a try. If you are as broke as most metal people are, look elsewhere for more bang for your buck.

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