Death metal, black metal and
progressive metal are combined to bring to life epic tales of long-ago battles
and faded gods. Crow Black Sky is a hard-working band who put on a spectacular
show at last year’s Rock The River festival in Cape Town. The stage was decorated with
skulls, pyrotechnics exploded at the front, and the band members were adorned
in armour and black warpaint. Pantheion is the band's debut album, and is available for free download on their Facebook page.
Vita Satus
builds the anticipation. The rousing track Dissention
follows. The slow verses boil with a sense of impending threat, until exploding
into fast choruses full of indomitable spirit. Ear-catching riffs abound in
this song, and in the next track, The
Opressor’s Fortune. A great clean solo appears on the latter, and on tracks
like Pantheion, Retribution and Our Path
Disdained.
The fourth track is an
instrumental number called A Shadow
Consumes The Desert. The echoing guitars bring the open spaces of a desert
to life. The end of the song continues into the title track, but the slight
break between songs felt like a bump in the road. Pantheion is a misanthropy-filled powerhouse of a song. The Spanish
guitar interlude adds interest, while the spooky ending gives an impression of
gods who are unseen, yet seeing.
Retribution
has an Amon Amarth feel, with its galloping pace and war-themed lyrics. The
chorus is catchy, and the fast guitar solo is powerful. This song makes me want
to get off my arse and do something meaningful. Things switch to the Opeth side
on Our Path Disdained, an excellent
piece of songwriting (and one of the best tracks on the album, in my opinion).
The guitars are full of feeling, and carry the song. The changes in tempo add
interesting texture. None of the different musical elements sound out of place,
which is the song’s biggest strength.
Two more instrumental tracks
finish off the album. The beautiful piano on Exodus reminds me of the piano work on Opeth’s album Heritage. Acoustic and electric guitar
play a haunting duet on Home. The
four instrumentals of Pantheion don’t
sound like filler at all, thus preventing breaking up the flow of the album.
The level of excellence displayed on Pantheion - from the songwriting to the instrumental proficiency - is a good indication that Crow Black Sky
will continue to soar in the future. Besides minor gripes with the production, I found it hard to fault this gem of an African metal release.
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