The impressions one gets from this album are those of majesty, of soaring under black wings over a landscape of forests and mountains, having ascended from an abyss into the light of a clear moon. This is the impression most black metal gives us. Where raw black metal, the less melodic but still fluid and racing kind, will give us this impression, it will give this more in a war context, in the din of battle, swiftly descending to kill all. It almost gives the perspective from the "good", the supposed "light side's" view of the beast that black metal and much metal in general gives, or simply the more adrenaline, brutish rage of the foot soldier of such a force of metal. When this melodic sense is infused into the picture, it turns the beast into a Romantic hero, coming with vengeance, or with conviction, to triumph in the victory of night, darkness, maybe even pure evil. Of course this is simply one view point of metal in general, but it is a good general idea for the feel of this album: The rejoicing and triumphant battle and then victory of the dark Romantic hero. Sacramentum succeeds in displaying this excellently.
First off, the murky but not abrasively raw production makes this sound excellent. Not too much reverb to sound watery, but enough to give a dense fog impression, and not so abrasive as to sound like television static. The songwriting inhabits a space somewhere between narrative and thematic, since while certain themes do reappear, there are many different riffs and melodies appearing in the course of a song. An excellently connected narrative, riffs leading into each other quite well, nothing sounding out of place, but some things sounding initially unexpected while still interlocking with the overall sound...an art to be able to do so. Excellent songwriting and production.
Guitarwork is where this album shines immensely. The melodic riffs are styled very uniquely, they often play counterpoint to each other, and harmony. They share a space of invention with Dissection, and pre-Slaughter of The Soul At The Gates, melodic riffs in a black metal style which race and flow amazingly with triumphant, dark, and sorrowful feelings...above all very emotional, with some occasional slowed down epic harmony guitars that bring to mind the opening of massive fortresses or the view from the top of a mountain once scaled. For an example of how well these riffs layer and counterpoint, the intro to "Devide Et Impera" or the fast and flowing riffs in the blastbeat sections of "Travel With The Northern Winds" should show how excellent this band's musicianship is.
Bass playing is obviously where points were lost, as there is little to recommend this otherwise excellent album in that department.
Rhythms on this album can be surprisingly unorthodox for a black metal band, even a melodic black metal band. Of course there are the usual blastbeat patterns that work excellent with the flowing melodies from this band, and a good deal of double bass drumming. The double bass drumming is where the more creative patterns come into play. Sometimes giving an adventurous, almost bouncy feel, sometimes almost going into the off time progressive path of the more extreme technical genres. Of course, the album does not neglect to use some rhythms that bring to mind classic metal, in a nostalgic and afore mentioned adventurous sense. Excellent drum work.
Finally, the vocals on this album do very very very well. The strained texture of the vocals is similar to Dissections, but more hoarse and emotional sounding, more of a howl appearing in the vocals. In addition, the outro contains spoken word vocals, which are adequate but nothing special as most of the music on this album is in contrast.
In conclusion, this album would be excellent for anyone who is into early melodic death metal and melodic black metal, such as Dissection, pre-SOTS At The Gates, Unanimated, Cenotaph, Gorgoroth (Pentagram, Antichrist), Dawn, Ancient, and like minded bands. Highly recommended.
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