Stigmhate: The Sun Collapse

For a band on their third record, Stigmhate don't sound like they're developing much. They're an independant black/death metal band from Veneto, Italy, and they should be thankful for whoever designed that album art because it'll surely win some potential buyers. The album unfortunately doesn't have as much going for it as the cover, what with the same playing style in every song; blast beat syndrome, endless tremolo, no vocal inflection....is there more than that?

Yes and no...mostly no. As far as what the band did right, at least comparatively, "Throne of Eternal Flame" has the most variation tempo-wise on the record, "Planetary Repulsion" actually uses different types of chords to give a slightly different atmosphere, and "In The Last Wake" actually has counterpoint in some sections, but this is kinda grasping for positives. There's very little layering overall so most of the record sounds thin anyway, and the basic key signatures don't do the lack of style variation any favors, let alone the interval and structural similarities adding predictability to that. The band is clearly competent with their instruments for the most part (arpeggios in "Architects of Fate" sound sloppy and intro of "Gathered Isolation" has too much of the pick noise), but they've created no sense of beginning or end, and it essentially becomes a half hour of somehow making Naglfar look good.

The Sun Collapse is an album about the apocalypse, but you'd never know that without them telling you. It's not that heavy or dark, and a lot of it just passes if you're not intently there...and if you are you'll notice the flaws even more. I hope this is just a hobby.

Track Listing
1. Throne of the Eternal Flame
2. Charon
3. Gathered Isolation
4. Sinless Progeny
5. Architects of Fate
6. Plenary Repulsion
7. In The Last Wake
8. The Sun Collapse
9. Luce

Added: April 2nd 2012
Reviewer: Danny Heater
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 1818
Language: english

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