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Svart Crown is a Black/Death Metal ac t that formed back in 2004 and originates from France. The time that this group has spent together clearly shows in their recordings, though it did take the group a good while to issue an actual release, with their debut full-length Ages of Decay being issued back in 2008 through Rupture Music, a smaller record label. However, the group has signed with the more established Listenable Records to issue their follow-up full-length effort, Witnessing the Fall. While the music still captures a nice brutal mixture between Black and Death Metal, it's the more maturing sound of tighter material in this recording that really captivates the listener. As far as the music goes for Witnessing the Fall, it often becomes chaotic, favoring more to a Black Metal sound with an aggressive Death Metal atmosphere and vocal approach, holding true to concepts conveyed by such acts as Behemoth, but for the most part staying at a mid-tempo to faster, more brutal sounding pace through many songs. Of course, some tracks do tend to go into a much slower speed as well, such as "Dogs of Gods", which runs the gambit of furious and intense speed to slow and ominous atmospheres. The material presented here is tight and well composed, using nice transitions that flow naturally between the varying speeds without simply jumping from one speed to another abruptly like many bands do. This isn't limited solely to "Dogs of Gods", and it really does make the various changes work in favor of the band to kill the repetition. There's nothing really all that fantastic, or anything the truly stands out about Witnessing the Fall other then great, solid music and performances. The songs themselves often carry a brutal atmosphere, but there seems to be a lack of a real bite to them at times, like they are missing an energetic performance to wrap the listener into. Much of the tracks on here come off like that sadly, though the music does carry a chaotic vibe to it instead of an energetic one, and it reallys hows and sounds nice on tracks like "Colosseum", but there's no denying that the furious, energy-filled track "Into a Demential Sea" can really get the listener's blood pumping and fists pounding into the air. Of course, the slower portion at the last quarter of the song simply doesn't really work out too well, and comes off a little more as padding, and also has some guitar chords used for atmosphere that sound a bit off against the rest of the recording. Sadly, this is where that energy is dropped, and even when it picks up speed again, it just doesn't have that same kick to it. The production of the album may be to blame for the lack of edge on some of the material as just stated. The quality actually comes off a little muddy, though not raw in any sense. It does manager to accentuate the guitars and give them a burdening heaviness, or a severe brutality to them, and the drums are at a perfect level with a great click to the double bass and natural sounding snares and cymbols. Of course, the commanding semi-gutteral vocals are just the right level as well, adding to the overall presentation of the recording. But, one can't help but think the muddy production of this effort winds up taking away from some tracks that should be really enjoyable, such as "An Eternal Descent", which seems to rely more on chugging music and a haunting atmosphere, but due to the muddy feel, gives it more of a burdening feel without the haunting environment, making it sound more chunky then anything. Once you can look past the muddy quality, the music on here is very well done, and really isn't half bad. Sometimes the varying changes in tempo can be a bit too much, like "Dogs of God" where it feels like absolute overkill, or just with "Into a Demential Sea" where a change in speed ruins an already strong flow, but not necessarily ruining the track. "Colosseum" is a great song that has some natural progressions that don't get too out of hand, and "Strengh Higher than Justice" is a simply brutal track from start to finish with very few timing changes throughout, leaving this track to feel solid and fluid from start to finish. Of course, the album comes with an introductory track, "Where the Light Ends", but at the same time it feels completely out of place and utterly useless except for that it does establish a slight atmosphere to the recording due to the slower, building, ominous music that kicks off the track and continuous until it reaches a climax, starts to ring out, and there's a random line shouted in the background that will leave the listener scratching their head as it ends on that note and takes a few silent moments to kick start "Colosseum", which would have been a fantastic point to start with it "Where the Ligth Ends" bled into that song, and not had a few seconds of silence to it. Another slight note of interest is "Of Sulphur and Fire", which is a much slower track, but seems to be the loudest, making my speakers pretty much rattle as soon as the vocals kicked in compared to the nine tracks before it that kept to the same volume and didn't cause this issue. If the recording didn't have such a muddy production quality, there is no denying that Witnessing the Fall would come off as a stronger recording then what it is. But, when you couple that with the many tracks that abuse changes in the tempo or overall pace, major or not, it just becomes a bit of a disaster at times, and some track lose their fluid, natural progression that was established at the start. While the music is tighter this time around, it seems the band is branching out more with exploring atmospheres on the recording through varying speeds, but it winds up hurting them in the long run instead of making for an album that is impressive, as well as lacks a huge amount of repetition. There's still a good amount of killer tracks on here, such as "Strengh Higher than Justice", and they truly showcase the band's talents nicely. |
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