Averse Sefira
Homecoming's March
[Arrogare]


Ah, absolutely wonderful - I was hoping that another American band would come along soon and try to do a cheap, completely faceless imitation of Gorgoroth, Immortal, Burzum and Abigor. This country has ten thousand bands that supposedly sound like Blasphemy and Sarcofago (how come none of them remotely do?), but there isn't nearly enough USBM Norsecore going on right now, and it's making all of the purists extremely unhappy. The problem is that it's on cd format and not vinyl, so it won't look nearly as kult on the playlists aside the endless rare Moonblood and Deathspell Omega tapes and 7"s. Actually it probably isn't real metal at all then, so I think it's all become so fucking stupid that I have resorted to listening to bands that don't exist anymore. When my imagination runs wild, there's nothing I love more than a good secondhand Immortal riff.

This really is not all that terrible, but it's just so completely pointless. The guys are talented (especially the drummer - maybe the Texan got some inspiration from Proscriptor), they give a good presentation, and the concept is original, focusing on the battle of Seraphim against a false god throughout the music. But it's 64 minutes long, and only one of the seven tracks stays below the six and a half minute mark. Thus, "Above the Firmaments of Wrath" is the highlight of the disc because it's over the fastest, and it reminds me that someday this album will actually end.

What separates this partially I guess to all the typical North minimalism are these extremely long ambient synth interludes, which are basically incessant echo effects construed into what seem to be a boundless stream of patterns; indeed they're no worse than the regurgitated rhythm guitar Immortal riffs are, so if they had made an entire album just on these I'd probably find it pretty cool music to ride an elevator up and down with. Just don't mistake them for keyboard generation, because when you encounter the "NO KEYBOARDS WERE USED IN THE RECORDING OF THIS ALBUM AND ITS INTERLUDES" disclaimer off the back you're going to have a lot of eliteness points deducted from your profile if you had the wrong idea. Vocals are not bad either, once again sort of similar to Gorgoroth, and percussives are very heavy throughout the recording. Production is also extremely clear, which I think is a positive element because it moves it just a bit further away from Norway.

One last complaint is that just when these snarling dogs started sounding and I thought I'd finally reached the end, there had to be a secret song - "Winter of my Bliss", which is supposedly an ode to all the supporting fans of the demo days. I wasn't one of them, and I haven't heard that demo. I doubt I ever will.


© 2002 hando