Reviews
2007-01-06
This 4 track EP by Italian black metal merchants Stormcrow was released originally as a demo, a good idea indeed, since this is quite an impressive piece of fast and brutal black metal.
The album starts with the only dose of keyboards you'll hear on this release, since the first track make sit abundantly clear that the band has nothing of the melodic-black-Goth vibe that sells so many albums these days. These guys pick up the styling of
Emperor and current bands such as
1349, meaning – stripped down, fast, black metal, where the only melodies are supplied by the smart guitar riffs thrown inside the mix.
The only thing that I think the band needs is a bit more variety, the four tracks just flow at an unbelievable speed, one blastbeat after another, with the drummer performing the usual screamed vocals, it's great for its style, but some more variation could have been nice.
Still, as far as fast black metal goes, this is among the best; good guitar riffs, dark and still quite catchy, furious drumming and some seriously evil atmosphere throughout - this feels like the work of an established black metal act, and not as a debut EP.
Not for pop black metal fans - this is meant hardcore fans. I'm glad it's well produced, since music this brutal will become unlistenable with a bad sound, but it's still a severally extreme effort, only for the strongest of black metallers out there.
Alon Miasnikov
