Meltgsnow - Black Penance (2010)

Seven years have passed since their debut “Black Penance” and Meltgsnow is finally back with their album “Black Penance”, a very diverse, interesting but dated sounding release that will surely confuse all the people used to getting their dose of brutality form Pulverised Records. This release, while not in the traditional ‘vein’ of Pulverised bands, is very interesting in terms of older genres of music being merged together in a very unique and different fashion.

Merging Gothic Rock/Metal elements with some NWOBHM, Thrash, and traditional Heavy Metal “Black Penance” is indeed one of the most diverse sound albums we have received this 2010. Having not heard of this band before, we can’t really say how much (or little) they have changed over the years, but we can say for sure that the sound in this release gives us a late 90’s/early 00’s vibe.

The band’s vocalist Lord Insanity, signs like he has multiple personality disorder jumping from heavy metal screams, to growls, to shrieks, and to clean vocals. This multi-faceted performance actually gives the album only half of its depth. The rest is created by different song structures that feature gothic rock like songs, thrashy riffs, atmospheric passages, and an overall very old school sound.

For those that need other bands as reference point, we might can say that they sound a bit like a hybrid of late 90’s Paradise Lost and Katatonia mixed with some To/Die/For, Entwine, etc. Songs like “Empty Sky” fully showcase the band’s deranged style, since Lord Insanity changes from growls to clean vocals to heavy metal screams all in the span of 4 minutes; the music itself is a very interesting trip as well with Gothic Rock influences as well as some Doom-ish sections.

In “Lost Your Messiah” we are introduced to a darker and ‘gothier’ side of the band with a dark ballad that will hypnotize you and get you under the band’s spell. It also features female vocals, growls and what not. The drumming through this release is another enigma, since it goes well with the music, but you can hear the double kick doing things out of the ‘ordinary’ (like on “Crown of Serpents”) and we totally love it!

In general, “Black Penance” is a very DIFFERENT release, we surely did not expect this from Pulverised Records, but it is a very solid album in our opinion. The band has a very unique sound to them, some people might hate it, but we think that they managed to craft a very solid sound that feels old school and has plenty of ‘weird’ elements that make their sound pretty close to unclassifiable. If you are looking for something crazy sounding and old school at the same time, this is the release you have been waiting for.

Release: September 6th, 2010

Country: Singapore