Agiel - Dark Pantheons (2014)

 Cost: $1.00

The band's full length (over a decade before this) was brutal, fairly technical DM with the distinction of having some minimal keyboard use.  Here, they've redone a couple of songs with full blown Emperor/Dimmu BM symphonics and multilayered vocals.  The new arrangements seem slightly more black metal-orientated, and while the underlying music under the effects is death, it doesn't always seem like it with everything else going on.  The vocals are still mostly gutturals but they're very toned down compared to the debut album.   The synths, vocals, drums, and leads are all pretty high in the mix and all fight for space, making parts seem overly chaotic (and not in a good way) and messy.

Fleshgod Apocalypse comes up a lot in other reviews of this.  It's inevitable, since ultimately they're both DM with some kind of symphonic element.  It's also not entirely inaccurate (especially when Agiel decide to blast), although I feel this has more of a black feel and comes off as more subdued. At times this somewhat brought to mind a weird alternate universe version of Cradle of Filth, where they still retained all the death metal elements from The Principle Of Evil... in the later, more symphonic material.

Baby Stab Horror - Manifesto Infernale (CD-R, 2006)

 

 Cost: $1.00

Admittedly the band name was so curiously stupid (it might work for a brutal DM or grind band, but not this), I was almost counting on this being some sort of odd fluke that was really good.   The bulk of the influence in the music seems to come from the early Nuclear Blast albums of Dimmu Borgir, and although they're nowhere near as symphonic sounding as DB, there are some limited attempts.  This is described as black/thrash, which I have mixed feelings about.  In a strict literal sense I do hear some '90s Slayer (unfortunately both less desirable Diabolus type stuff as well as decent Seasons in the Abyss influences) in the riffage, but absolutely none of the music has any of the '80s sound you'd typically associate with that tag.   Besides, the black metal influences are the primary ones, so this doesn't seem any significantly thrashier than say, an album like Spiritual Black Dimensions. 

Oddly, they completely shift gears on the closer "Sentinel," which sheds much of the black metal and seems more like a raspy-vocalled tribute to the Gothenburg melodic death scene.  The solo section and harmonized twin guitar parts are probably the most compelling music on the entire CD, although a guest guitarist is credited for a solo.  I personally think it's a shame, as I think I would have found a CD full of "Sentinel" style stuff to be more interesting.

Ancestor / Unlight Domain - split CD (2008)

 

 Cost: $1.00

I must admit I tend to gravitate (often irrationally) towards metal from more "exotic" locales, even though  the novelty in that is mostly long gone.  With modern technology, someone from the most obscure place can make an awesome Sodom or Hellhammer sounding recording, although of course it unfortunately almost always goes the other way, and trends merely extend to every far corner of the world.

This is an OK but mostly unremarkable split of two Cuban black metal bands.  Both are Nordic-influenced BM in line with the majority of the Latin American modern BM scene since the late '90s (I associate this style with a lot of smaller Brazilian bands that appropriately, often released split CDs).  Ancestor seem to have better guitarwork and riff ideas, although the drumming is really monotonous (I'm thinking it might be triggered or an electronic kit).  Unlight Domain put their own typewriter drums up high in the mix, which doesn't do them any favors.  Initially I thought they were even more monotonous sounding than Ancestor, but there are some tempo variations in the last few tracks that make them a lot more listenable.

This doesn't reach bottom of the barrel for black metal, and considering the dollar price, it's pretty decent.  But I'll say it again and again--this is a ridiculously oversaturated genre, and neither band is all that remarkable.