BATTLE DAGORATH
'Ancient Wraith'
(Grau)
Battle Dagorath hail from sunny and funny California, but in no way you should expect lame glam metal here. What we have instead is high class, cold and atmospheric, black metal. 'Ancient Wraith' is the band's second album and its six lengthy songs bear some similarities with the early works of both Emperor and Enslaved. You should know the drill – maniacal tempos abound that come down to ambient passages in the more atmospheric parts of the songs. The opening ambient track, 'Spirit Of Winter Darkness', gives way to the blood-freezing mayhem of 'Empire Of Imperial Shadows','Where Darkness And Frost Prevails' and 'Spellbound Requiem Of The Winter Night' – for those are the musical equivalent of the cruel morbidity brought along by the genuine northern frost. The closing composition, 'Ancient Spectre Of Oblivion' is yet another ambient feature, but tends to drag along with its length of nearly 20 minutes, which could be singled out as the biggest let down in an, otherwise, rather brilliant album. Fingers crossed for a slightly more homogeneous representation the next time around. [7,5]
(Asen Asenov)
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