Weekly album: True Black Dawn - Come the Colorless Dawn

True Black Dawn - Come the Colorless Dawn

2016 / Black metal

1. Intro

2. Come the Colorless Dawn

3. The Light Goes Out

4. Cinereous

5. The Ring-Pass-Not

6. Downwards the Serpent Spiral

7. Strange Shaded Sky

8. The Sectile Shadow

9. Eyes of the Cadaver

10. Into the Tomb of Her Mirror

11. Outro

tp5170: I think Wrath has always been one of the more interesting personalities in the Finnish black metal scene and his past band, Enochian Crescent, was actually rather good and also somewhat different from the other major BM bands around. So after realizing that he was involved in the True Black Dawn I got pretty excited to see what kind of material the band would be producing. I actually haven’t yet listened to the band’s debut album of 2001 for some reason, but now that band’s second album is here, I thought it couldn’t hurt to start with the new one. And it turns out that the new album is in fact pretty darn good. 

The sound of “Come the Colorless Dawn” might be slightly more traditional than Enochian Crescent’s in general, but it’s very, very well put together and Wrath’s characteristic vocal style is fortunately still there, adding a lot to album’s atmosphere. I thought that there were no weak tracks on the whole album, and with the healthy amount of variation between the tracks and some well composed build-ups this has to be one of my favorite releases this year.

Favourite track: ‘The Light Goes Out’, ‘The Ring-Pass-Not’

Orostider: After Wrath left Enochian Crescent and told about his plans to focus on True Black Dawn, my anxious wait begun. Some folks shared this feeling, but some wished for a release similar to Enochian Crecent's albums. Even though I think highly of Enochian Crescent's albums, I anticipated something that would reflect Wrath's fascinating visions.

True Black Dawn occasionally reminds me of Enochian Crescent, possibly due to Wrath's unique sound, but the album mainly consists of more traditional black metal than Enochian Crescent were. Some of the riffs are actually rather high quality black metal riffs and prove that the wait wasn't in vain. There aren't really any low quality songs or riffs, only somewhat generic ones, but black metal albums without any generic attributes are almost impossible to produce. 'Come the Colorless Dawn' is a mighty slab of fine black metal. The production is as modern and high quality as I predicted. If the approach would be rawer, the album could possibly lose some of its punch, so modern production is a pro here.

'Come the Colorless Dawn' is a worthy album and proves that there's still room for great black metal albums. Even though the album is purely black metal, there's plenty of variation. The wait to witness True Black Dawn's live ritual begins. 

Favourite song: 'The Light Goes Out', 'Cinereous', 'The Sectile Shadow'

btcarey: With releases from both True Black Dawn AND Behexen, 2016 is starting to look like a pretty good year for Finnish Black Metal. I’m not all that familiar with True Black Dawn’s other material or it’s band member’s other projects, so I went into “Come the Colorless Dawn” with almost no expectations.

The record carries a deeply dark and haunting atmosphere, as if a raving asylum patient gave birth to it. An eerie dark-noise aspect is prevalent throughout the album giving it an even more dismal sound. The vocals might be the most distinguishable trait of the music and are delivered by the somewhat symbol of the band, Wrath. His distinctive style ranges from a slow distorted drone to an almost power metal shrieking style allowing the album to rise above the black metal masses and be something special.

Favorite Songs: “The Light Goes Out”, “The Ring-Pass-Not”, “Eyes Of The Cadaver”

Weekly album: Behexen - The Poisonous Path

Behexen -The Poisonous Path

2016 / Black metal

1. The Poisonous Path

2. The Wand of Shadows

3. Cave of the Dark Dreams

4. A Sword of Promethean Fire

5. Umbra Luciferi

6. Tyrant of Luminous Darkness

7. Chalice of the Abyssal Water

8. Pentagram of the Black Earth

9. Gallows of Inversion

10. Rakkaudesta Saatanaan

btcarey: Finland is an extremely fortuitous country. It’s not for their top-notch education, impressive healthcare system, or indestructible cellphones, but the country’s unwavering ability to produce some of the best metal bands in the world. Charging in the front lines of Finland’s Black Metal Battalion is the almighty Behexen. The phrase “black metal” can scarcely be brought up without reference to the legendary band or their classic album “By the Blessing of Satan”. For this reason when Behexen’s most recent album, “The Poisonous Path”, was released I had to check it out.

The album is more “clean-cut” or professionally mixed, than previous releases, giving the songs a less chaotic yet tight sound. As far as songwriting, the album’s pace is much faster than Behexen’s previous record with better, more memorable songs. The vocals are about the same as on “Nightside Emanations”, but the guitar tone is the best of any of their releases. It has an incredibly powerful, crushing tone with a sweet fuzz that really pulls the mix together.

This is an solid album and could even have the balls to be one of the top black metal albums of 2016. I recommend it to any fan of Finnish Black Metal.

Favorite Songs: “The Poisonous Path”, “A Sword of Protean Fire”, “Chalice of the Abyssal Water”

tp5170: Behexen has always kept the quality of their work rather high despite the numerous changes to the band’s musical style and it’s nice to see that they managed to keep the flag high also with the band’s fresh, fifth full-length release. ‘The Poisonous Path’ represents a return to a slightly more traditional black metal and the album sounds far more conventional than its predecessor ‘Nightside Emanations’ did. Now whether this can be considered a positive or a negative thing is highly subjective. Though I have to say that for me the biggest problem with the album is indeed the return to the traditional style as otherwise the album is of superb quality. The fact that apart from the excellent execution there is basically nothing, at least in my eyes that would separate this album from the rest of the bunch is frankly unfortunate. 

But like I said, I think Behexen has yet to release a bad album. ‘The Poisonous Path’ is far above the average conventional BM releases in almost every respect, but it lacks the innovation to be a true gem.

The thing is that today there exists simply so much black metal in the world that one needs to mix up the formulae at slightly to make it actually interesting again. Behexen didn’t really set out to do this with their new album, which is a shame in my opinion because even though the album is solid it doesn’t really stand out all that well.

Orostider: Behexen have been preaching their black mass since 1996 and have done it in several different styles. Their early material, the material I discovered Behexen from, was fierce and raw black metal. Just what I sought at the time being and won't be forgotten. Especially 'By the Blessing of Satan' which could quite possibly be my all time Behexen favourite. As the time passed by, Behexen's sound transformed into less lofi and raw form of black metal, but the core was still the same. For me the evolution reached it's glory on the split with Satanic Warmaster and 'Nightside Emanations.' 'The Poisonous Path' seems to follow the same path as 'Nightside Emanations'.

'Nightside Emanations' offered semi-modern sounding black metal with catchy grooves and powerful riffs. The high shrieks that were present on the first two albums were gone and were almost completely replaced with lower chanting vocals. The same pattern is repeated on 'The Poisonous Path.' These new Behexen releases are definitely more approachable than their previous material, but that doesn't mean quality loss. I enjoyed 'Nightside Emanations' and 'The Poisonous Path' offers the continuum I've waited for this ritual.

'The Poisonous Path' is a worthy successor by all means, but it would probably be more powerful it it wasn't as lengthy as it is. I wouldn't call the album repetitive, but the overall sound stays pretty much the same throughout the almost an hour long album. Apart for lengthiness and the somewhat dull snare sound, I have no complaints. This is what modern production black metal should be. I can always go back to the early years if I long Behexen's raw black metal days, so complaining about their new sound is pointless.