Blacken The Angel - Agathodaimon > Reviews > The Rape and Ruin of Angels

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Nice background music, if you're partial to it .
Disadvantages:	Songs don't stand strong on their own .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Germany's Agathodaimon (named after an ancient alchemist) followed loyally in the footsteps of black metal bands such as England's Cradle of Filth and Norway's Dimmu Borgir by infusing their dark music with increasingly prominent symphonic elements, eventually abandoning black metal altogether and heading into the bland pastures of generic gothic garbage. The one part of the process they failed to mimic was the bit where they sign the large record contract and receive loads of money, cars, undefiled virgins and things, but everyone makes mistakes.

'Blacken the Angel' is the band's first full-length album following a number of demos and shorter releases, and it will certainly appeal to fans of those aforementioned bands as well as fans of melodic- or symphonic-based extreme metal in general, though it's destined to be something of a mediocre backburner whichever way it's taken. It's not a bad album, but in maintaining a tempo that ranges from slow to medium with only short and ultimately disappointing bursts of speed, and deviating little from its selection of repetitive guitar riffs, boring backing drums and polished keyboard melodies, it's more suited as background or atmospheric music than something you could put on when craving some dirty black metal enjoyment (which we all need every once in a while). At one hour and one minute in length it tends to drag on, particularly in the longer songs (the longest of which is an unreasonable and unexciting fifteen minutes), but assuming you're in the required peaceful, pensive, slightly sombre and easily distracted mood, it works nicely as a soundtrack. Luckily for me, that's my emotional state about ninety-five percent of the time (the other five percent is when something exciting happens in 'Count Duckula').

A reviewer on another website bizarrely described this as an album of 'ballads,' which clearly brings his sanity into question, though I can see what he was getting at (he's still mad though). Right from the opening song, many offerings of this album sound like what would typically be considered the compulsory 'slowie' from a Cradle of Filth album, but placed alongside each other in this manner they do lose a lot of their inherent impact and charm. The album compensates somewhat by balancing this out with roughly half of the songs taking on a more sinister and heavier edge, though ultimately these tend to be the weaker pieces, lacking any real punch through their lethargic and cleanly processed delivery and relying too much on the repetition of unimaginative guitar riffs and even worse drums. The first few tracks maintain this balance fairly nicely, but as the album draws to a close it becomes increasingly evident that the band has started recycling ideas, sometimes entire songs, in their goal of surpassing the hour mark.

1. Tristetea Vehementa
2. Banner of Blasphemy
3. Near Dark
4. Ill of an Imaginary Guilt
5. Die Nacht des Unwesens
6. Contemplation Song
7. Sfintit Cu Roua Suferintii
8. Stingher / Alone
9. After Dark
10. Ribbons / Requiem

Due to the early involvement of Vlad Dracul (perhaps not his real name?) before he was deported back to Romania, some of the lyrics are in his native tongue, while others reflect the band's German origins, though the majority are in English and concern the usual themes of sadness, death, forlorn lovers and angel desecration. Vlad's vocals are carried out in the typical black metal growl, never becoming too expressive to break the mood and even overlapping in duets with himself, and later a female guest singer to take this into the slightly more pompous realms of a musical tragedy. The guitars mostly recycle fairly generic riffs, but some songs such as the lengthy 'Near Dark' and 'Stingher / Alone' feature some nice leads and harmonies, even if there's never anything too creative. Vampallens' keyboards are perhaps the real highlight, draped over the whole thing to add a certain degree of grandeur and melody while also working to enhance the more deliberately raw sections when notably absent, such as in the song 'Sfintit Cu Roua Suferintii' which strives to attain the primitive sound of early, catchy black metal, without really succeeding.

The two opposing styles of slow-pleasant and slow-heavy mentioned earlier become fairly dull and routine before too long, making the early examples of their style the more interesting. Opener 'Tristetea Vehementa' is one of the most enjoyable songs of the album, never seeming too long despite lasting eight minutes especially when compared to the overlong track three, with a chorus that manages to stay memorable and some nice variations on tremolo-picking riffs and keyboard varnish. While the celebrated 'Near Dark' accomplishes similar goals it takes far too long to do so, the seemingly endless, similar-sounding verses being a hefty price to pay for some nice guitars towards the end, and it's only really at the very end of the album with 'Ribbons / Requiem' that we're given a melodic song of comparable worth, though of course by then it's far too late. It may even take several minutes for you to realise the album has long since finished as it proceeds to just sort of fade out when it's had enough.

The darker edge is held up by the songs 'Ill of an Imaginary Guilt,' 'Die Nacht des Unwesens' and 'After Dark,' all continuing the sound established in 'Banner of Blasphemy' of dull, mechanical-sounding chugging riffs and militaristic drums. Each one tries to set itself apart through some jarring gimmick or style shift, from track two's spoken word to the squealing fret-pinching that makes 'Ill of an Imaginary Guilt' the worst song on the album for trying to be a Machine Head B-side, while both 'Die Nacht...', 'Stingher / Alone' and 'After Dark' manage to pull off more energetic, faster sections with some degree of skill before slipping back into the tedious plod of the rest of the album, the last song in particular managing to set itself apart the least, though this could have something to do with its undesirable position right near the end. There's a pleasant but rather insubstantial interlude in the form of the sixth track, performed by Vampallens' classically-tinged keys against Matthias Rodig's slowest drums yet, which could be substituted in place of the album if you fancied a two minute edit without all the terrifying shouting.

Agathodaimon's debut is far from a compulsory purchase, but it's enjoyable enough if you're familiar with the genre and can successfully relax to the strains of a cacophony of instruments and screeched vocals as I tend to, and it's almost certainly better than the 'gothic metal' they allegedly moved into hereafter, which brings to mind some truly horrible bands. The atmosphere is consistent throughout, which is both an advantage and a hindrance depending on what you expect to gain from this listening experience, meaning that even the long 'Near Dark' could become a firm favourite. Personally, I tend to prefer the more creative moments that are few and far between, most evident in the opening and closing songs and the unusual 'Stingher / Alone,' which has some of the most mournful, melancholy lyrics but bizarrely ends up being one of the more frantic and upbeat of the disc.