Viaticum "Reliquary of the Horned One" CD

Viaticum's first demo would be "Reliquary of the Horned One" and once a short intro is over the band unleashes a barrage of aggressive and fast played black metal. Yet, and this is perhaps a promising aspect of this release, the band does not try to keep it too monotonous and minimalist, but varies the motives to a good deal and also webbed some slower parts into the compositions. The distraction is a welcome one due to the over-arching use of tremolo-picking and some amount of melodicness is added accordingly.
The music wakes memories on releases by Dark Funeral, with the way the arrangements appear and also in terms of the atmosphere. Aggressive, fast played, a wall of guitars, screams that are not far from the performance of Emperor Magus Caligula, but mixed slightly in the background and distorted, just to name some facets. Viaticum are already able to get the message across and they are able to write some good compositions; yet, they had not been able to develop some outstanding characteristic, but as this is their first demo, such an argument is not such important.
With two guitars at their disposal, they are able to use lead and rhythm elements, on which they do not rely over the whole course of each song, but use it to a good deal and it works fine. Yet, the lead-guitar parts appear only a small degree and maybe some more of it would do well to the music. In terms of the vocals some form of croaking/screaming can be expected and even though they have quite a good deal of the cake, they are not as annoying as in respect to other bands whose art suffers from the same flaw.
The drum-computer is not bad programmed but in a too monotonous way; its play lacks in some respect of fascinating elements. Without punch and the ability to give the music some additional dynamic, this 'instrument' does not entirely fit into the band's concept; which can especially be perceived in the motives played by the cymbals; they even create some kind of counter-point to the fast tremolo-picking; see (or hear) Reliquary of the Horned One. Further is the balancing not optimal, as it has put the guitars too much in the foreground; at the expense of the vocals. A bass-guitar on all songs would be neat; there is one on Inconcessus Magister Alkimia far in the background and accordingly hardly recognizable, Reliquary of the Horned One offers also one, but even harder to recognize.

Recommended to fans of fast and aggressive black metal; Dark Funeral, Setherial, Tyrant (Swe)/ The Legion etc.

Sample: 

Sample: