Kozeljnik isn't really the freshest band in the Black Metal underworld. The group formed back in 2006 as a two man piece, then had a third member, Inomatanas, but for roughly a year, and reverted back to being a two piece. Since then, the band issued their debut release as an EP in 2007, and in 2008 released their first full-length effort. However, this is perhaps the first time you've heard of this band, and for good reason. This band isn't from a cold and dark land that they can feed off the grim regional atmospheres and incorporate it into their works, or even somewhere that gets mildly cold on an occassion. No, for, you see, Kozeljnik is actually from Serbia, which is one of the last places one would consider looking for Black Metal. While this isn't always the most important thing to take notice of, in this case it is, because, for Black Metal, or at least an album being woven as Black Metal but really isn't as forward as that exact listing, you can really tell their location, and it just doesn't work out for what the band is trying to pull off.
Consider Kozeljnik an odd combination of Satyricon's more modern Black N' Roll sound, mixed with earlier Melechesh as far as the concept of bringing regional compositions to a Black Metal sound goes, and you'll have a good idea of what to expect. For the most part, the Black N' Roll aspect of the band's music is actually not that bad, but the more straight forward Black Metal sound is rather stereotypical, and seems to showcase more of a third generation sound sometimes with the amount of blast beats that are brought into the mix, such as on "The All-Consuming", but just not enough to be classified as such. Some of the Black N' Roll elements of the album are also rather upbeat, which, given the dismal lyrical content, an upbeat atmosphere that often feel like it's being played without energy is not the best way to go about things. "ThetruthisDeath" starts off with a very light, rather energetic approach that will remind many of Satyricon in a heartbeat, while "Void to Final Consumption" shows some great ideas by the band and focuses more on creating a darker atmosphere to the release, but sadly much of it doesn't quite reach that state, but the deep toned clean singing that is incorporated, like a ritualistic vocal performance, really sounds great for the chorus, and the music that accompanies it is fantastic and makes for a very haunting moment of the song, though the rest of the track starts to feel drawn out, but with enough changes to keep the listener away from the skip next button.
As you continue through the album, the ritualistic-like moments of "Void to Final Consumption" carry on through the rest of the album, as well as the somewhat darker atmosphere, though nothing really matches to the power those first moments had behind them. Infact, "Deeper the Fall" is a very blunt song lyrically, and musically isn't all that aspiring either, though the faster aspects of the song are alright. The song itself is just over nine minutes, which just feels too long overall, and the song really does drag after a short while, but this time there's nothing going on in the music that really offers anything to keep the listener attentive, though it does offer some changes in the music as well, but most are just brief transitions or bridges. Of course, out of nowhere comes the track "Breeding the Apocalypse", which does have some really good music to it and shines through on the recording as one of the more superb tracks, showing that slower material by the band may very well be the way to go, as it's the only song with a somewhat decent length and not an obnoxiously drawn out time span over six minutes or more.
The main drawbacks to this release, outside the not-so-impressive music and lack of any real atmosphere, fall on both the vocals and production. The vocals on this release are far from bad, and for what the band is trying to accomplish musically, they work, but the problem is that they just sound off and often don't really have any bite to them with the music. The style used here is a rather different, being more of a rhaspy back of the throat shout then a traditional Black Metal approach, coming off as more of an evil-sounding style one would expect on a Thrash release, but the problem is sometimes these vocals seem to go a little over the top and miss the point entirely, like when the vocals kick in on "ThetruthisDeath", which just sound comical at first, though clearly meant to be done with a good deal of emphasis.. Atop of that, the production is just alright. The quality is very clear, but at the same time it doesn't have any real bite to it, and isn't due to a crystal clear quality, as it's just not that digital. But, at the same time, the production all has this hollow sound to it that just seems to take away more from the atmosphere of the album.
Deeper the Fall shows shades of promise from the band, but, sadly, it's just not a good release. The music isn't too bad, but nothing all that jaw-droppingly spectacular either. The album greatly lacks atmosphere, as well as energy through many songs, and a good number of the tracks wind up sounding drawn out, as if extended to try to create some kind of epic aura for the benefit of the songs, but it just ultimately fails. While a nice attempt for this Serbian band, it's clear that the lack of atmosphere really hinders things, leaving a somewhat open album that, has it been recorded somewhere with permafrost, probably would have had some of the dark and despair-ridden atmosphere seeped into it naturally simply by the surroundings. Deeper the Fell just has a number of good moments, but there's just not enough of them to actually warrant buying this release.
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