The Perfect Album - "Fallen From the Brightest Throne" Review (100%)
Demonecromancy. An underground black metal band from Wales, something pretty unusual in itself.
I had been trying to get this album "Fallen from the Brightest Throne" for quite some time now, after reading the positive reviews on Metalious and elsewhere, and I just recently got it.
This album IS that intense, but it doesn't get too raw or droning, because just as the songs are about to get repetitive or monotonous, some melody kicks in. Those melodies aren't annoying at all - something most "melodic black metal" bands can't really achieve - and instead contribute to thickening the atmosphere of the compositions by releasing some of the tension accumulated until that point.
This band is not well-known. They are incredibly underrated. As is this masterpiece, "Fallen from the Brightest Throne". The album is a perfect blend of the melodic black metal of later Burzum/Graveland/Neraines and the raw atmospheric metal of Phantom. Variety is something Demonecromancy does extremely well, and the way they manage to fuse multiple styles of black metal, spawning over multiple eras, into one coherent package is the perfect example of their variety.
Many of the songs can go from melodic riffs to that hammering Phantom-esque atmospheric metal style, and vice versa.
Every song is guaranteed to have AT LEAST one thing extremely remarkable in it, be it a harmony, a solo, a crushing riff, a truly disturbing atmosphere, an epic feeling, or all of the above.
And the way they are often combined is simply superb. For instance, the atonal Vermin inspired riffing during the first half of "In Hell my Throne Awaits" is the perfect yin to the later part's melodic yang.
The Perfect Album
Demonecromancy also proves that they don't need to use the tired tropes of 90s era black metal to be 'true', they simply let the music speak for itself.
"Fallen from the Brightest Throne" sounds unlike anything I have heard another black metal band do.
But the true masterpiece, the one song that shines above the rest, is the title track. The main riff is both melodic and intense as hell. The leads that come over the riffs are awe-inspiring. The main counter-theme, which appears first around the fourth minute or so, is also genius, it fits perfectly. Then, around the 5:30 mark, comes one of the most spectacular black metal riffs I have ever heard in my life. It is breathtaking, easily one of the most beautiful - yet dark - riffs ever created in the history of the genre. It still gives me chills, every time I hear it.
Apocryphus is a brutal, fast, and melodic piece. The melodies kick in exactly at the right moment. The second song, Twilight Beasts is probably my favourite song on this album, but I'm a sucker for atmospheric tracks in the vein of Burzum's My Journey to the Stars. The main theme is awesome, brutal, and melodic at the same time. It's the type of song you can just repeat on and on, without ever getting sick of it.
Now it's the same recipe for each other song, a mix of brutal, atmospheric, intense and melodic, with some parts more brutal, and some parts more melodic. Another thing that adds a lot of spice to this album is the Phantom cover, "Demonecromancy". Nothing better to just press play, and let it take you away. This might be one of the rare cases where the cover is better than the original.
In short, this is one of the greatest melodic black metal albums of all time (possibly the best), one of the greatest black metal albums of all time, and, hell, one of the greatest metal albums of all time. I give it 100/100, it is simply perfect.
And it's not easy to earn a such a score from me.
Overall, "Fallen from the Brightest Throne" will please just about everyone who likes melodic black metal, or simply black metal.
Go get it now...
Fallen From the Brightest Throne score: 100/100.
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