Adversarial - Prophetic Plain Of Abyssal Revelation
After their successful full length debut, 'All Idols Fall Before the Hammer,' Adversarial felt that fans deserved a bit of old material from the archives, along with a few other treats while they patiently waited for the next album. This blackened death metal outlet have compiled the music from their first demo, 'Thralls,' and compacted it to one disc, along with a few other goodies. Most of the first three tracks on this EP can be found on the full length debut, and the only real difference is sound quality, but at least it's a marker so fans can see how much the band improved in the span of a few years since then. The music is fuzzy and distorted but full of black metal tremolo pickings along the deathly powerful vocals that border almost doom metal with how deep they are. One thing Adversarial does well is they don't put out the same type of track over and over- some like "A Hatred..." are slower and don't just blast the listener full on, whereas other tracks like the 'unreleased' title track hits hard and fast. Also, at that point, one can certainly tell a difference in the musical style as the drums no longer sound like they are beating on blocks of wood as they were in the demos; they sound more lively here.
"Impending Eternal Blackness" is the only real 'original' track here, being fresh material from the band aside from the demo and cover tracks. It lives up to usual Adversarial expectations- starting out heavy but with some great melodic guitar work layered in the pummeling riffs and gutteral vocals before calming down a bit and then picking up again. It's basically a continuation of what one would hear on the debut album. The two covers are a nice addition, but more filler than anything else. The Archgoat cover lets Adversarial try a bit of blackened punk sound with death metal vocals, so it detracts a bit from the original. However, the Incantation cover feels like a rehash from the original, because both bands play fast-to-slow death metal, so there is barely any difference between the two. The vocals between both bands are very gutteral and raw, so there isn't as much of an impact that Adversarial put to their listeners by covering a death metal track (if they covered a power metal track, that would have been interesting). Still, these is a decent EP for those who want to look back on Adversarial's career and also want a brief taste of what may come...
"Impending Eternal Blackness" is the only real 'original' track here, being fresh material from the band aside from the demo and cover tracks. It lives up to usual Adversarial expectations- starting out heavy but with some great melodic guitar work layered in the pummeling riffs and gutteral vocals before calming down a bit and then picking up again. It's basically a continuation of what one would hear on the debut album. The two covers are a nice addition, but more filler than anything else. The Archgoat cover lets Adversarial try a bit of blackened punk sound with death metal vocals, so it detracts a bit from the original. However, the Incantation cover feels like a rehash from the original, because both bands play fast-to-slow death metal, so there is barely any difference between the two. The vocals between both bands are very gutteral and raw, so there isn't as much of an impact that Adversarial put to their listeners by covering a death metal track (if they covered a power metal track, that would have been interesting). Still, these is a decent EP for those who want to look back on Adversarial's career and also want a brief taste of what may come...
- Scourge Of A World Ablaze
- A Hatred Tempered And Trialed
- Thralls
- Prophetic Plain Of Abyssal Revelation
- Impending Eternal Blackness
- The Light Devouring Darkness (cover Archgoat)
- A Once Holy Throne (cover Incantation)
Label: http://www.darkdescent.net
Reviewer: Colin McNamara
Mar 26, 2011
Mar 26, 2011
Next review:
Belphegor - Blood Magick Necromance
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