Unanimated, In the Light of Darkness
I’m pretty unfamiliar with Unanimated, but I am a fan of man of the members’ former endeavors. Featuring participants from the likes of Dismember, Entombed and Nifelheim In the Light of Darkness is a solid slab of blackened, melodic death metal. While I was expecting something a bit beefier and menacing based on the band’s pedigree, what we have instead is a mid-paced, dark, yet not quite scary death metal.
Layered with plenty of desolate atmosphere, the 45 minutes of music on this album present black metal tinged guitars and vocals along with Swedish death metal inspired melodies weaving amongst the dissonant riffing. The rhythms section keeps the blood flowing well enough, but I would have loved to have had a few more furious blasts of activity. While delivering their brand of death metal, Unanimated come across feeling restrained, as if their holding something back — keeping the hounds of hell on a tight leash instead of letting them run rampant upon humanity.
Ascend With The Stench Of Death
The album’s intro helps set the mood with light guitar work and forbidding atmosphere.
Retribution In Blood
After the near two minute intro, “Retribution in Blood” fades in slowly with building guitars and atmospheric elements. The guitars start off melodic and melancholic while the drums come in with a steady beat. Shortly after the one minute mark the pace picks up with a hellish scream. The blasting drums are well delivered and I would love to hear more of this throughout the album, but the band settles instead on a steady mid-tempo pace. The vocals are certainly blackened and raw.
The Endless Beyond
The opening moments of guitar on this one have a classic sound that resonates on each listen of the track. “The Endless Beyond” certainly doesn’t feel like the beyond, but it does have some furious blasting drums and driving riffs. The vocals have an old school Entombed feel to them with the slower pace. It definitely brings back memories of rocking Left Hand Path in the old tape player. This song has a much darker feel to it even during the brief slowdown around 3:40.
Diabolic Voices
“Diabolic Voices” starts off slowly with disharmonic guitar that eventually explodes into driving riffs along with some seriously pummeling drum work. The vocals come in with plenty of vehemence and venom. I keep waiting for this one to get ugly, but it never happens. Even during the manic blasts the restrained, melodic feel dominates the track’s sound. For all of my nit picks, this is still one of the more aggressive tracks on the album. The lead at 2:51 is pretty damned sweet, as well.
In The Light Of Darkness
I’m digging the opening riffs to the title track as thundering drums punctuate the calm before settling into a slow groove. The vocals are a bit deeper and more menacing it seems, especially with the layered growls thrown in for good measure. This is a dark track that hits pretty heavily.
The Unconquered One
“The Unconquered One” starts off with driving riffs and steady drum work for the first 25 seconds or so before the pace is kicked up a bit. The band settles down again while the vocals come in with melodic guitar work that belies the menacing feel the band is trying to deliver. The three minute mark sees a nice tempo increase with blasting drums to end out the track.
Enemy Of The Sun
This next one starts off quietly with light guitar work and atmospheric noise for the first 40 seconds or so before a decent sized riff makes its presence known. A brief bit of melodic guitar work introduces the vocals that have a more ferocious feel to them than they did in the last song. The lead at 4:40 is pretty damned slick and lasts a good while.
Serpent’s Curse
Evil guitars get “Serpent’s Curse” off on the right track as all hell erupts in flaming fury at the 30 second mark with a big scream. It doesn’t last long however, as the pace is quickly slowed into a groove filled mid-tempo rhythm as the vocals come in. I’m digging the guitar work at 2:30 before the vocals come back into the blackened fold.
Death To Life
“Death to Life” is kicked off with massive riffs and some of the more creative drum work on the album. The vocals have a nice layered feel to them that is an interesting twist on the band’s formula. While there’s a good portion of melodic tones throughout, there’s also a nice explosion of fury around the three minute mark that climaxes in a decent scream as all that’s left is some light guitar work for a few seconds before the band hits everything as hard and as quickly as they can. Definitely enjoying this track.
Strategia Luciferi
Acoustic guitar is all that’s needed on this outro to wrap up the album.
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Favorite Tracks:
All of them
Additional Notes:
N/A