Claymore - Vengeance is Near
Bulgarian symphonic black/death metal band Claymore returned last year with a brand new sophomore album, coming as it did after a five year gap between it and their debut album "Prolonged Active Antagonism". This new one is entitled "Vengeance is Near" and opens with "Beast in the Crowd". My initial thoughts? Oh dear! The vocals on this opening track sound like a parody of black metal as does the overly catchy, almost oompah like riffs and synth work that have more of the jokey folk metal about them than serious black metal. Think Lordi crossed with an extremely poor mans Dimmu Borgir and you will be in the right ball park! The dream inspired Nightwish style intro to tracks such as "Spiritual Fraud" are a joke, no serious black metal band would ever engage in this kind of sound and whilst I am far from a black metal elitist, (I'm more of a doom fan to be fair) I find the bands simplistic, symphonic metal meets Lordi meets slight black metal influence grating. Avoid at all costs!
- Beast In The Crowd
- Centuries Of Chaos - Part II
- The Eternal Law
- Dancing With The Black Fire
- Antichrist
- New Threat
- Spiritual Fraud
- Divine Persuit
- Vengeance Is Near
