|
|
A superb debut album that will have you coming back for more.-
|
| Thulcandra: Fallen Angels Dominion |
Black Metal, Death Metal
Napalm Records
June 4th, 2010
- In the Realm of Thousand Deaths - 1:30
- Night Eternal - 7:29
- Fallen Angel's Dominion - 4:57
- Frozen Kingdom - 6:20
Everlasting Fire - 5:05
- Spirit of the Night - 6:45
- Legions of Darkness - 5:15
- In Silence We Eternally Sleep - 1:11
- The Somberlain (Dissection cover) - 7:07
|
| Links |
| Review Information |
Release length: 45:39
Review posted on August 13th, 2010
- |
|
| | Overall Score: 7.5/10 |
 
|
|
|
|
|
| - |
| Review |
Fallen Angel's Dominion is the debut full-length offering by the German Black/Death Metal act Thulcandra. The band formed back in 2003, and seven years later, this marks the fruit of the band's labor, as well as the tragedy that surrounds the name. The group does not have an official drummer and uses a man named Seraph as a session drummer, but the real tragedy here is that former guitarist Jürgen Zintz committed suicide back in 2007. But still, Thulcandra moved on, and managed to put together a strong debut release that will surely get the band noticed.
Of course, it isn't without some faults. While the music is well composed and blends together both the Black and Death Metal genre's nicely, the first fault here is that the introductory track, "In the Realm of Thousand Deaths", doesn't really do much for the album, even as a track to set up the atmosphere of the album. The main reason there is because there's no real atmosphere to be found here to warrant something like that. The production here like something one would hear off a mid-career Emperor album, which the artwork would even remind listeners of thanks to the group recruiting the same artist. While it sounds a lot clearer and more professional, it's still pretty thick sounding, and just flat out comes off heavy with songs that have some great Black Metal riffs that mesh well enough that some tracks seem to have their own Melodic sound in the mix, like the title track, "Fallen Angel's Dominion". The song itself is more of a traditional Black Metal song, but the riffs have a rather stylish melodic structure to them that works great with the album. While, again, there's no real atmosphere to the album, this track shines through and does it's best to reflect the cold and grim album artwork.
While Fallen Angel's Dominion is a very strong release, there's still moments here and there that leave the listening hearing traces of classic Black Metal bands, like the aforementioned Emperor, thanks to the more stylized music compositions that seem draped through a heavy recording sound, as well as simply are lacking accompanying symphonic keyboards. "Frozen Kingdom" is the perfect example of this, but no so much in the sense of early Symphonic Black Metal bands sans the keyboards. This track actually makes for a good Black Metal song with enough melody in it to have the listener get sweeped away with it's rather dismal atmosphere that it does manage to create, just not as strong as one would hope. "Everlasting Fire" is really the only song that brings in a well suiting atmosphere to the track thanks to the faster music and the riffs utilized that give the song a very frostbitten feel. Instead, "Frozen Kingdom" is more of a black sheep of the album, pun not intended, due to the fact that this sounds more like a Power Metal song that was just blackened. If you sit and listen to the chorus, and replace the rhaspier vocal performance with clean singing, chances are you won't be able to listen to the song the same way again without singing the chorus out loud or hearing some random Power Metal riffs accompanying the heavier, blacker material.
There isn't too much to say about this release. The music isn't anything all that original, which actually becomes rather obvious during the final track, "The Somberlain', which is a cover of the classic by Dissection. Here is where you will hear a good chunk of the band's influence, but not as far to say idolworship. Either way, the cover is fantastic and pays homage to the group very well by trying to stay as true to the original as possible, and manage to do a pretty good job of it. The only thing that is a little confusing at this point lies in the same position as the introductory track, "In the Realm of Thousand Deaths". The instrumental "In Silence We Eternally Sleep" is placed right before this cover song, and again, doesn't do much, but that's mostly because of where it wound up being placed. Had this followed "The Somberlain", it would have made a decent outro to the album as the music is very fitting as a farewell from this act. But, alas, that doesn't happen, and winds up sounding a little more out of place then anything. Another thing about this release is the track lengths. The shortest track on here happens to be the song "Fallen Angel's Dominion", but while it's a good song, it also has the lingering feeling that it originally wasn't meant to be a Black Metal song. This puts a bit of a negative light on the band, as it's the longer songs on here that work out well. Yes, some of the longer ones, like "Night Eternal", do have moments where a bridge feels tacked on in the music, like fading out to an acoustic section that really serves no purpose, only to fade back into the regular music again, but these songs are all well composed and don't leave the listener hanging outside of the random instrumental bridges, as well as seem to have more complexity to them in the long run. Even "Legions of Darkness" turns out better, and that is just over the five minute mark, but this track winds up holding it's own due to the speed in which the music is played, which works well with the overall heavy production of the album moreso then some of the slower, melodic cuts on the album.
But, no matter what, Fallen Angel's Domination is a superb debut album that will have you coming back for more. While this isn't one of the most original albums of the Black?Death field, you're sure to highly enjoy what the band brings to the table, which is simply hard hitting, well composed metal that doesn't seem to fail outside of track placements and an odd song. If you happen upon this release, there's no reason to simply pass this one up, as it will show you that Thulcandra is a band that you should keep your eyes on, as there's plenty of room to grow and mature for this band still, but even now still can stand proud with the big boys of the genres.
|
|
|
