Idol of Fear: All Sights Affixed, Ablaze

This album marks Idol of Fear's full-length debut. The cover art, by Mark Riddick, is pretty great. It depicts a Buzzard carrying a skull (wearing a king's crown) in its talons. Look more closely, though—the talons are actually digging into the skull, cracking the bone, crushing the skull. It's a powerful image of defeat and despair, the vanity of human ambition.

The music, like the artwork, is dark, forceful, and brooding. I suppose we'll call it death metal, but it's also something more than that, something slightly difficult to describe. The music is consistently strong, heavy, and brutal, but it also has a melodic quality undergirding the whole thing, particularly in the guitars. Listen to the music and you'll hear it, a melodic high end that tracks the heaviness, much like a bird of pretty circling its way closer and closer to its kill. The vocals, performed by Austo (who also contributes some of the guitar parts), are dark, raspy, and heavy. I would prefer a better word than "heavy," but it works. I'm not sure how he recorded his voice, but I hear more than one voice at play here, a harmony of darkness. It has an interesting quality that I enjoyed even though I wish it had been slightly more melodic. That is, it sometimes declaims instead of sings. A little more fluidity to the vocals might help them feel more organic to the music.

Rounding out the band, we've got Dave on lead guitar, Johnny on Bass, and Doug on percussion. Together, the band members have created some ambitious and edgy extreme metal. This is a solid debut from a band to watch!

Track Listing:
1. Vanquish
2. Morningstar
3. Circle of Vortices
4. All Sights Affixed, Ablaze
5. It Demands
6. It Militates
7. It tyrannizes
8. Carrion

Added: January 18th 2015
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Bandcamp Page
Hits: 2156
Language: english

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