Review Summary: Slaughtersun is never truly bad, but it's never that good either.
Black metal has always been a rather infamous genre of music that is not known by most of the world. Those who are fans of it, however, usually regard it as one, if not the best genre of music on the face of the earth. This style of music is pure evil, hatred, and atmospheric greatness. The genre has been growing out of Europe for quite some time, but its true greatness still lies at the starting point, Scandinavia. Enter the Swedish Slaughtersun by...
Dawn
The band is comprised of:
Henke Forss - Vocals
Andreas Fullmestad - Guitar
Frederik Soderberg - Guitar
Lars Rosenburg - Bass
Jocke Pettersson - Drums
If you've ever listened to black metal before, you know that most of the albums are based around creating atmosphere and not impressing you with their technical riffs or beats. This band goes out for just that. Their rather long tracks that are all at least over eight minutes in length are a minefield of atmospheric licks and blast beats that just suck you in and create somewhat of a droning effect. For the overall feel of the album, it's great. Some people may feel that some of the songs drag on for a bit too long, and I can agree with them in some instances. The length is also going back to the droning effect. I don't know what to think of it, so I'll let you as the listeners decide.
Secondly, if it's evil music you want, this album will give you just that. While the lyrics are damn near impossible to understand, you can tell from the way that they're delivered with ferocity and pure hatred from within. Henke is just what you would imagine a black metal vocalist would sound like. His voice is very raw and unpolished, and occasionally even very gritty. While some artists in this genre load up their singer's voice with echoes and reverb, Dawn decides to just keep Henke's voice the way it would sound if you heard him normally. While it's not true to black metal's roots, it still sounds pretty cool.
Dual guitarists are always a great addition to any band. Having two musicians of the same instrument can allow the band to write out more complex parts and allow the band to harmonize their sound to make the band seem very full. Dawn, however, does not seem to really utilize this advantage. Just about the entire time Andreas and Frederik are playing the exact same thing and just make themselves louder with two guitars instead of one. This doesn't really impress me because you could just have one guitar turned up louder and it would have the same effect on the album. If you're going to have two guitarists, you should make some more parts where they get to play different parts so the album would be more pleasing to the ear.
As far as the rhythm section goes, it's pretty solid. Black metal drums are always known to be loaded up with droning blast beats and unrelentingly fast fills. Dawn stays true to these stereotypes and lets Jocke load up every song with swift drumming that gives the band just that kind of sound they needed. His parts are never very complex and they're often straightforward, but that's just what the band needed him to do. The genre of black metal, like I said earlier, is more based on atmosphere than sheer technicality, so his parts I can find totally acceptable.Lars, the bassist, isn't even noticeable. You can barely even hear him play through the entire album even with the bass turned up on your speakers. I normally would be bummed out by this, but I know about the black metal sound and I know that bass is barely noticeable in just about every record the genre has produced. Since the band wants to stay true to their style's roots then doing that is also an acceptable move.
There are some bands out there that want to change the way a person looks at music. Those artists are the revolutionaries, the pioneers of a new age of music. Dawn doesn't want to be a starter of new music, they just want to play straight up black metal and that's it. While their songs are solid, they're just not all that I was hoping for. Since I've heard many different albums in this genre, I've gotten used to the normal records and average records just don't seem as good as they would have several months ago. That's why I find this album to be dissapointing in some parts because it just seems like your generic off-the-mill black metal. Had the band tried to create a more unique sound, I would have been much more impressed by this release. But because of it's lack of originality, it gets a lower rating that it could have potentially gotten.
Highlights:
The Knell and the World
Facula
Malediction Murder
Pros:
-- This album has a great atmosphere
-- Solid guitar riffs throughout
-- Raw and evil vocals
-- A solid rhythm section
-- Good production quality
Cons:
-- The album's sound is pretty generic
-- Some songs drag on for too long
-- The band does not utilize their two guitarists
Final Rating: 2.5/5 -- About as average as BM can get.
