(I first of like to say you can check out their other reviews of this album on youtube and their interviews for both bands on the posts below on this page.)
Now here is a review of the cd I got from them entitled Graves Of The Damned... its been awhile so I hope I dont suck as much as usual at reviewing.
Blasphomet starts off the album with a very strong guitar intro that slowly picks itself up once the drums come into play and you can also here some keys and the vocals are a mix of death growls and raspy screeches. The first song Shit On Your Grave is the perfect opening for the album and is very guitar driven, and has a menacing, lost, and dark presence I like about it. Perfect song for opening a live show with it, if it ever happened. I really enjoyed it, and I think you will too.
Halls of The Damned opens with a dark ambient sound that slowly creeps up on you and then pushes the drums right into play and kick starts the track to get you ready for some more ear punishment. I really like how the Count pulled this off, and then the guitars come in with some very low and anguished vocal style. If I had to say anything about this track is that it is my favorite one of my favs on the DM part of the album because of the way it is orchestrated and how it presents itself. It is not too fast, not too loud, but has that perfect slow and "drawing you into the feel" sound to it. It has a lot of substance and character. The quality of the sound is also superb.
Blasphomet then comes back to try to one up the Count with his very intricate and intelligent guitar work on Abyss of Emptiness. I see splits as a competition, and I am liking this competition so far. The song has a ton of guitar stuff going on in it and thats why I really like it. The sound is almost war like, it is a vortex of empty thoughts and dark memories. If I had to compare this album so far to anything, it would be that it so far reminds me of 2nd wave black metal, but with a higher quality. The song Abyss of Emptiness treads on and on with its riff after riff and just amazes me. Fucking excellent!!!
Now the Count is back, with some fancy guitar poetry of his own. We all know the Count to not be a slouch on his guitar skills, and this is one of those songs, Home Sweet Home. The song reminds me of what it would it be like after a long days in the woods and finally going back to your cabin running on electricity by the solar panels and your able to jam all night. I get this imagine in my head of what the Count would be doing if he lived out in the middle of nowhere in such a dark and mysterious place. The song is one of those black metal songs that is so ethereal and atmospheric it takes a life all in its own. I would change one damn thing about it. That how much I like this song. The artists I believe with their songs must make us dwell in our own imaginations while we listen, and The Count has just done that to me. Then once the guitars stop, a majestic wave of ambient sounds and overwhelming theatrical sounds come in and closes the song into silence...
Blasphomet is now back with a vengeance!!! With his bone shattering vicious assault in pounding percussion and guitar interpretation in the song, All Too Human. It is very anti - human sounding, the longest song on the split, and is punishing from start to finish. If I had to think of a band that has sounded as blistering as this song it would be Mayhem, but better of course! Sorry if I am sounding like I am riding on Chads balls, but this song is very tense and powerful then his last, longer, and provides enough of a beating for any metal fan to get into to. Towards 6 mins and on the music comes completely overboard with power and is very inspiring to me. I really like how the sounds came out for the guitars on this one, I can drool in awe on my fretboard just listening to this. Very well constructed, very well played. The end of the song is pretty epic as well. A soft instrumental tune comes in to put you in a dark place, the song is now coming to a end and this is the end of Blasphomets part of the split. Damn I wanted to hear more.
The final and last track of the split goes to Dark Metamorphosis with a slow interlude to start things up, a slow drum beat with some excellent guitar sound with a deep ambience behind it. The song is entitled Thy Flesh Consumed... the guitars then comes in with more thrashy of a pace from the slow interlude that came in, to a very loud bellowing scream. Raspy vocals, lots of stops and fast parts, and also pacier drums. The song has very hellish features, and goes almost as long as the last Blasphomet track did. Some piano comes in from 6mins and on and completely sucks me in from start to finish. It comes back to some thrashy guitar driven sounds towards the end but has that great pick up that really is ominous from start to finish. I really like this song by DM and it proves to be a perfect closing to the split itself. I wonder what it would be like to listen to this album on stormy night outside. I should try it one of these days.
Overall, BLASPHOMET VS DARK METAMORPHOSIS on thee score card is 3 and 3. I would have to give this split a tie. Both bands equally are perfect together on a split in a musical sense. At times I got confused and thought one band was the other. They both made this split just completely out of the hell of it and it turned out it sounded more like a bands EP rather then a split to me. Not that both bands sound totally the same but I think at a musical level, as one man projects as well, are very identical but both have a lot to offer to the listener. I am glad to have this album in my collection and look forward to reviewing further material by both Blasphomet and Dark Metamorphosis.
May this album haunt you for the rest of your fucking existence. Buy it now!!! You have been warned... -Danny
http://www.pointdown.net/music.html
http://evergrimrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/graves-of-the-damned
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