Thrall is a two-piece Black Metal outfit from Australia, filling out the rest of the necessary members by utilizing two session performers. The group formed in 2006, and since then has only issued Away from the Haunts of Men, the band's debut full-length offering. Originally released through Total Holocaust Records, Moribund Records has picked up this sixty minute plus Black Metal opus, making it available to a much broader metal audience. This proves to be a good thing, as this is a great debut album that many Black Metal fans would enjoy.
While the opening of "Spit in the Eye" doesn't necessarily provide anything really different, it does manage to set the tone of Away from the Haunts of Men somewhat, mostly by introducing it's razor-like production quality. The album isn't necessarily a raw recording, having a fantastic clear and modern sound to it, though still a little dark and muddied to give the guitars a very nice edge, taking full effect to the listener when the song kicks in at full force about a minute
into the song with piercing guitars and fantastic drumming, though the bass kicks are a little muffled. Had the kicks been a little sharper, having that click that many releases have, it probably would have fit better in the recording due to how sharp the guitars sound. The ambience that appears here and there in the track, like that of a woman singing in an operatic tone in the background to give off an illusion of howling, really just enhances these faster moments, though the slower moments of the song aren't really anything too inspiring, and can become rather boring, and by the end even sound tedious and tacked on as some kind of Slam moment that Death Metal acts such as Incantation would utilize in their recordings. Luckily, there aren't many longer tracks on here, with "Spit in the Eye" over nine minutes long, "Ranks Webs" at eight minutes thirty four seconds, and "Robe of Flesh" at nearly twelve in length, so the slower paced moments that appear here are at least restrained and not utilized in all the songs, giving off the feeling that the band intentionally used them to stretch out the song lengths. Of course, in the slower songs, when they are utilized, they are often much shorter, such as during the following track, "Frozen Tears and Blood".
The musicianship on this album goes from intense, to intimidating at times. The faster moments feature some fantastic Black Metal riffs that are both intense with the way they are performed, but also give off a rather haunting sound, which is complimented by the vocals and their properly distorted ghastly Black Metal rhasps that may not be anything too new, but are performed with great effort, and an echo that enhances the overall haunting feel of the material. Of course, while the faster paced music on this release is what really drives the album, there are some songs on here that are much slower, but definitely do not delve into the Slam atmosphere from start to finish. The music continues to jump around between fast track and slower material, but nothing as substantial as the start of the album, reaching it's slowest during the track "To Velvet Blackness", which is an acoustic instrumental piece with plenty of atmosphere added to the background through the use of sound effects. This instrumental doesn't bleed into the following track, "To Velvet Blackness", as it does have an end, but it does seem as if the overall ominous tone is continued into this instrumental as well, but is less interesting and has less acoustics behind it, and what is played seems to have a slight Egyptian feel to the music with a matching overall atmosphere and ambience to it. "To Velvet Blackness", however, does bleed into the next track "Ranks Webs", which manages to take the slow instrumental from before, and turn it into another Slam-like moment for the music, crawling along as the vocals chime in to give off a tortured feeling to the music that works, but just seems to drag on after a while.
These three seem to make up some kind of conceptual piece, being more ambient inspired then actual Black Metal. While they aren't bad, they do start to get boring and repetitive after a while. The music kicks back in to it's original furious pace on "Black Hearts Burn!", which is welcome change of pace compared to the past seventeen plus minutes. The only difference here is that the song doesn't quite feature the same kind of razor sharp guitar work that many of the earlier tracks have. Infact, this song actually has a more first wave Black Metal sound meshed into things at times, taking away some of it's ferocious sound for some bridges that are catchy, leading into heavy, sometime ominous sounding verses. Of course, the slown down aspects are still here as well, being very short, and, again, feeling tacked on at times due to how quick they are and how randomly placed they seem to be. Of course, "Robe of Flesh, another long track, again seems to carry on from the previous track, and is a rather enjoyable song for the entire time. There are some moments where the music becomes a bit drawn out, but not enough to ruin the song. As you continue through, the drumming almost takes on a tribal approach, which works well with the fact that much of the haunting atmosphere that adorned all the tracks up to "Heliophobia" has basically been removed, except for a few ques. About eight minutes into the track, some haunting background guitars do kick in, as well as a random wail in the background from the vocalist that is further back in the mix, reviving the atmosphere of the album in a very Burzum manner, just without the keyboards.
Honestly, Away from the Haunts of Men is a well done album if you sit down and listen to it from start to finish. Though the Ambient tracks on this release feel more like overkill, as well as the outr on "Robe of Flesh", which sounds like something from a music box that would hosue jewelery or something along those lines, but seems to just go on for a bit too long and lead you to believe it's the end of the album. This track also would have been better as the "Outro" in the long run due to how well it would have closed the album out. Either way, the music on here seems to blend in the concepts of the Slam Death Metal approach, making it suitable for Black Metal. In essence, there is a heavy Progressive approach to the album with the way it, as well as specific songs, are set up. Much of this release is enjoyable and really stands out nicely, as well as comes off very strong with a haunting, and sometimes violent sound. Thrall is definitely a band to keep an eye on, as this makes for an impressive debut album, but, due to the talent displayed on the release, easily could have been better.
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