Setherial – Ekpyrosis (2010)

Long standing Swedish Black Metal underdogs are back with yet another brutal release that will be unleashed upon the world on June 14th. The band has always been playing second fiddle to the likes of Marduk and Dark Funeral, and we now think it’s their time in the (bigger) spotlight.

With crushing drumming, hyper fast riffing and brutal vocals “Ekpyrosis” is one the band’s most brutal releases to date. We did not liked the band’s ‘new’ vocalist in their last album “Death Triumphant”, but now he feels more integrated into the band and ready to scream his lungs out in this fine release.

The band relies heavily on the traditional tremolo-picking riffs, and blast-beats. But they do so with such an intensity that your will surely feel tired (in a good way) after listening to this blistering release. As you can expect, there is nothing super innovative in this release, but it’s still brutal enough to grab your attention.

While most of the music is what you can expect from any top-notch Black Metal release, the band uses some keyboard bits to provide a richer and darker atmosphere. But it never goes overboard and sounds like a Sci-Fi movie, something we greatly appreciate since we like our ‘traditional’ BM raw and brutal, not extremely fancy and over produced.

The vocals are a better than their last album, and we completely dig the switch between shrieks and growl, a nice combination that when done correctly make an album a true aural assault. With the many bands using this style, it’s refreshing to listen to it done correctly and not excessively overlaid to make it sound more brutal.

As far as the production goes, the mix on “Ekpyrosis” is decently balanced, but sometimes the riffing gets on the way of everything else. Yes, it sounds more crushing, but sometimes is a bit overdone. The drumming sounds a bit weak at points, but we also assume this is due to the production, especially when the keyboards are used.

In general, Setherial has improved on their last effort “Death Triumphant” and as of now “Ekpyrosis” is on our top 10 albums of 2010. If this does not make you go to the label’s website and pre-order this release, we don’t know what else can make you do so. If you are a fan of the band, you should definitely get this release, and shake the bad impression (at least for us) that “Death Triumphant” left.

Release: June 14th, 2010

Country: Sweden