Friday 29 July 2011

Northern Terror - Embracing Satan

Pure Blue Distribution 2011

1.Nonasturma (intro) 2. Serpents Rise 3.Erotic Mantra of Fragile Flesh 4.Embracing Satan 5.Evocation For Leviathan 6.Sands Of Vengeance 7.Through Lucifer’s Eyes
Another cd with another eerie sampled into (Nonasturma), I’m not sure it should have really been included on the cd as it has no impact and is a little half hearted. First ‘real’ track, ‘Serpents Rise’ blasts in with a very industrial feel, repetitive thrashy riffs arranged around simplistic drum patterns which are repeated many times throughout the track. There’s not a lot of substance to the track as the same riffs are used over and again. Vocals patterns are also very repetitive, gnarly growled vocals used alongside almost ‘spoken’ vocals. ‘Erotic Mantra of Fragile Flesh’ is similar in structure, although the industrial edge to the previous track is not as prevalent on this track. One surprise was the use of clean vocals, which didn’t really fit with the song, feeling somewhat out of place and assumingly used to add some variety. The songs are very melodic in places, maybe a little too melodic as certain sections sound ‘nice’, especially when guitar leads are introduced. Title track ‘Embracing Satan’ is very similar to the previous tracks but with an added progressive edge, NT are obviously accomplished musicians and work their instruments well here. There are moments of all out blast, but they don’t really ‘threaten’ at all or add much to the song. As has happened before, I have read the song titles and studied the artwork before pressing play and was expecting something completely different to what actually came from the speakers. Maybe it was narrow minded of me to expect hate filled Black Metal, but the imagery and song titles just doesn’t fit the music being played (some might argue they don’t have). Something just isn’t gelling and the songs begin to sit uncomfortably, venturing into an almost gothic feel and losing momentum. Keyboards are used selectively throughout the cd, but they do begin to feel out of place and having a ‘spacey, techno’ feel they never really accompany the music to full effect. The spoken vocal passages take over the last track ‘Through Lucifer’s Eyes’ completely, the track peters out into nothing. With a band name such as Northern Terror I really was expecting more, the song titles really got my attention, but unfortunately the end product didn’t live up to the ‘hype’ (created by myself). All of the instruments are very well played, with a great production, but NT seem to have a lot of influences outside extreme metal which they are trying to incorporate in to their sound, which is ultimately too much and not extreme. Definitely one for the more open minded, but there’s nothing to terrorize the listener.
5.5 / 10

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