Patria - Nihil Est Monastica
Returning once again with another dose of black metal is Brazil's Patria. With their fourth album in five years they have been working hard and putting out a lot of material in a relatively short amount of time. Brazil has a large history of extreme metal with bands like Sarcofago, Sepultura, Holocausto, Vulcano, etc. paving the way into death and black metal. I was a bit thrown off with Patria since they take more influence from European black metal bands then the bands that came from their local region but they no way emulate any specific sound.
The album starts off with an intense symphonic introduction. Throughout the album there are these interludes similar to the intro and they don't fit with the album very much since they are very well produced sounding as opposed to the relatively raw sounds that the songs have. The album in itself is thin sounding like most black metal in this style. The bass is there but doesn't add any low end and the guitars don't have much punch to them. The snare sound is flat and is noticeable when not playing faster beats. However this is what I expected and with what they do it works pretty well.
The songwriting and the riffs make up for the sound and they manage to use a good amount of styles to make something pretty unique coming from a band from Brazil. They tend to use a low of slower passages and faster tremolo picked sections with interesting melodies. The first song "Conquering Death's Palace" shows this very well. The melodies are familiar sounding but work extremely well especially on the slower parts like twisting of "Till Death" and "Ascendant Of Darkness". A song like "Ravens Almighty" shows how well this band can play fast with some great blast beat sections and tremolo riffing that is very reminiscent of Norwegian black metal. Yet it never comes off as more of then an influence. The transitions flow exceptionally well and no riff is played for an extended period of time to where it becomes stagnant. The use of palm muting in "Sacro Vale Dos Encantos" makes for an interesting "chorus" section.
While they take influence from a lot of black metal bands Patria definitely keeps a listener interested with the variety of riffs, lack of repetition and interesting melodies. The production while normal for black metal standards leaves me wanting something heavier. If the interludes were more raw sounding then I feel this album would have flowed nicer. This is still a great listen for anyone who enjoys all sorts of black metal.
[embed]http://www.youtube.com/embed/iLgslLnMmH8[/embed]
The album starts off with an intense symphonic introduction. Throughout the album there are these interludes similar to the intro and they don't fit with the album very much since they are very well produced sounding as opposed to the relatively raw sounds that the songs have. The album in itself is thin sounding like most black metal in this style. The bass is there but doesn't add any low end and the guitars don't have much punch to them. The snare sound is flat and is noticeable when not playing faster beats. However this is what I expected and with what they do it works pretty well.
The songwriting and the riffs make up for the sound and they manage to use a good amount of styles to make something pretty unique coming from a band from Brazil. They tend to use a low of slower passages and faster tremolo picked sections with interesting melodies. The first song "Conquering Death's Palace" shows this very well. The melodies are familiar sounding but work extremely well especially on the slower parts like twisting of "Till Death" and "Ascendant Of Darkness". A song like "Ravens Almighty" shows how well this band can play fast with some great blast beat sections and tremolo riffing that is very reminiscent of Norwegian black metal. Yet it never comes off as more of then an influence. The transitions flow exceptionally well and no riff is played for an extended period of time to where it becomes stagnant. The use of palm muting in "Sacro Vale Dos Encantos" makes for an interesting "chorus" section.
While they take influence from a lot of black metal bands Patria definitely keeps a listener interested with the variety of riffs, lack of repetition and interesting melodies. The production while normal for black metal standards leaves me wanting something heavier. If the interludes were more raw sounding then I feel this album would have flowed nicer. This is still a great listen for anyone who enjoys all sorts of black metal.
[embed]http://www.youtube.com/embed/iLgslLnMmH8[/embed]
- Nihil Est Monastica
- Conquering Death's Palace
- Dark Cosmic Legend
- Nyctophilia
- Ravens Almighty
- Altar
- Sacro Vale Dos Encantos
- Ascendant Of Darkness
- Evoking The Ancient Spirits
- Storm Before Eternity
- The Silence Of The Thrones
- Till Death
- Black Vomit (cover Sarcófago)
Label: http://www.drakkar666.com
Reviewer: twansibon
May 24, 2013
May 24, 2013
Next review:
Pessimist - Death From Above
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