Necromantia "The Sound of Lucifer Storming Heaven" CD

Necromantia’s newest album is slightly different than the Necromantia I know. The band has definitely tried to expand on a style on this album, which isn’t necessarily bad.
The band uses their awesome evil sounding basses and song arrangements throughout the album. The Sound of Lucifer Storming Heaven is quite riffy like a lot of Necromantia, but they are relying on they keys and extra orchestra stuff more than I expected. The album is kind of like Scarlet Evil Witching Black, but with more orchestra and keys and a orchestra breakdown in almost every song; moreover, the only difference is that the song writing is a bit lacking while trying to expand on the orchestra and keys. They tend to repeat a lot of the riffs that don’t really accomplish what they want. Usually the circular songwriting works very well with black metal because it makes the atmosphere and keeps the ideas together, but The Sound of Lucifer Storming Heaven seems to lose focus in the middle of some songs, which make the 41 minute album slightly tedious. The album definitely has the standard dark, Hellenic and sinister atmosphere, that Necromantia does so well but it just doesn’t capture it as well like Scarlet Evil Witching Black. The riffs in the album are catchy, the break downs are solid like in Scarlet Evil Witching Black, and the band can really does create and atmosphere; however, I do not ever see myself coming back to this album, like I constantly do with their early material.
I have been knocking the album during this review, mainly because I hold Necromantia so high in terms of black metal, but this album is quite solid. It is definitely an above average black metal album, with some bits that can be unfocused. Fans of Necromantia will enjoy the album through for a few listens, because Necromantia’s song arrangements are always interesting and intriguing. I doubt the album will catch repeat listens; however, I highly recommend at least a few listens.

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