Agarthi
At the Burning Horizon
[Red Stream]


Fairly original black/death/thrash/MFate style "atmospheric technical metal" mixed up with everything from a Kreator to a NWOBHM influence. It's none the less all very professionally done, and despite this rather hefty combination of styles, pulls through with flying colors. I'd assume the six technically proficient metalheads in the band have something to do with this, as such a large grouping of musicians tends to lead to far move developed metal music.

Imagine Mercyful Fate (musically, the vocals here are all raspy) if they picked up some Kreator style thrash in their riffs, and suddenly became influenced by black metal. Or if Bal-Sagoth replaced their death metal influence with thrash. It's unique anyway, and doesn't fall under any OBVIOUS category.

I quite like the mCD. They experiment with some interesting bits here and there, such as using the grim vocals over some cleaner ones, mixing up Beethoven style keyboard sections with thrash riffs, etc. Best tracks are "Black Triangle Sovereigns" with the melodic Fate riffs, and the title track, which is like a keyboard driven black/thrash song. Diverse!


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