I was immediately intrigued by this release as it’s another symphonic/tech black/death whatever release from The Artisan Era who have already wowed me in 2019 with the likes of Singularity, Oubliette, Mordant Rapture, The Odious Construct, Warforged and such, but also that the band features former members of Council of the Fallen, one of the 00s very best yet underrated  melodic black death metal bands.

Despite being around since 2008-09, this is the band’s first real album, and its a doozy, especially if you enjoyed any of the bands above with their epic, spacey orchestration laid over modern tech black/death metal that’s got confident memorable riffs abound.

While most similar to the Singularity release, Place of Chains, or Mordant Rapture and The Odious Construct, Immanifest’s sound is less pure tech death than those and a little more melodic and blacker (which is expected with the COTF  members). Even with the tech death production and vocals, with the keyboards delivering ample sweeping atmospherics, though not as purely 90s as Nick Pompliano’s  (RIP) from Singularity, but they are certainly similar bands overall.

After opener “Energy Weapons Formed Against Us” you get 7 songs and one more interlude (“Orbis Speculari”) of top notch modern symphonic black death that gets better as the album goes on. From “Ultraterrestrial Creation” to “Spirits of Old”, it’s splendidly done. Anton Kalaj’s keyboards are majestic and celestial, guitarist Asgrim provides a few clean croons to complement Dracin’s deep bellows and it’s all well written enough to be more than just a blur of symphonic blasts.

Standouts include the sweep filled “Emissaries of Ikhenaton”, dramatic Dimmu Borgir ish “Jahbulon’s Labyrinth”, controlled march of “Nifelheim” and closer “Spirits of Old”,  a more blistering, pure black metal close out with modern tech death guitar tone.

I’m giving this and the Singularity album a lot of play time and both will more than likely end up on my year end list. And as I’ve said before I really like what The Artisan Era is doing with this sound and I don’t appear to tire of it any time soon.

 

 

[Visit the band's website]

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