There is an air of mystery and anonymity surrounding  Stockholm black metal act Flagellated Seraph and their debut album, Beyond Salvation. However, not knowing anything about the band or its members does not change the fact that Beyond Salvation is a killer release.

Basically, Beyond Salvation is the very epitome of black/death metal. It delivers melodic but sharp tremolo picked riffs that remind of Dissection,Marduk and Funeral Mist but its rendered with a more dusty, mid range tone and deeper. gruffer death metal vocals that seem inherently Stockholm-ish. The end result is pretty damn good, if a little short, and should appease fans of both genres.

There are only 6 songs and 2 of them are an intro and an outro, but the 4 songs in between are between 6 and 9 minutes in length and plenty worth it. After the intro of “Reminiscence of the Serpent”, the first real track “He Who Bears the Mark”, explodes from the gate with an attention getting gallop that melds frosty black riffs and a more earthy death metal rumble, it’s one of the releases standout numbers and give you a peek into Flagellated Seraph‘s fairly unique sound. The title track delivers a more tempered varied assault with plenty of killer riffs and time changes carry both black and death metal trademarks. But the albums second stand out, “I am the Flame” really encapsulates everything perfectly; the melodic riff at :58 and the 1:25 transition being just killer moments that are greeted with horns and head banging each time they resurface.

The 9 minute penultimate track is initially a more straightforward black metal track, the albums first and only real solo takes a definite Stockholm death metal lean bleeding  into a moody,melodic section and then a killer melodic, blackened blast. The band is so seamless in their shifts from serpentine harmonics to death metal and back (3:33 is just killer) that I would not be surprised if I found out that the band was some sort of super group featuring veteran members from both genres. ‘Casus Belli” closes things out with 2 minutes of church organs and lurching riffs and growls, but is still most definitely an outro

As I mentioned already, there’s only 4 real songs, so this comes across as more of an EP, but the 30 or so killer music contained is more than worth the price of a full CD and I highly recommend this mysterious band to anyone wanting their metal a perfect mix of black and death.

[Visit the band's website]

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