Noctem
God Among Slaves ()
Wydane przez Self-financedRok wydania Kraj SpainNapisał Wouter5
Spain's Noctem play a semi-melodic form of death/black metal that has much in common with (early) Unanimated without their songwriting prowess and excellent technical skills. The instrumentation is where the band derives its death metal tag, while the vocals, additional female choirs/backing vocals and occasional synthesizers lend this band an air of symphonic black metal. The riffing is a mash of styles being either straightforward, chugging or mechanical while the drumming is basic and functional but not really exceptional in any meaningful way. The songs twist and turn themselves through the expected faster sections but none of the tracks on this demo stand out. The mid section of this demo contains a three track mini-epic called 'Yells In the Eternity' but Noctem's poor instrumental mastery, limited grasp of the English language and underground songwriting palette take down whatever effect this epic could have had. 'The Tongue Of Hell' is a neat little atmospheric cut with theatrical keyboards and demonic vocal work, but it's too little too late to save the remains of this demo. Besides these faults the demo comes with a questionable production that makes the snare drums sound like tin cans and reduces the bite of the guitars to the absolute minimum. The artwork is fairly good as well, but again much bands with the same limited financial means are putting out better works these days. Noctem definitely hold some promise for the future if they nurture their strengths, upgrade their technical skills and look to the genre's formative acts on how to write adventurous, engaging material.
www.noctem.es
