Abused Majesty - Serpenthrone
Adipocere Records - CDAR99 - 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
Polish quintet Abused Majesty clearly aren't ones to make things easy for themselves. This is their debut full-length album, and as if having to prove their mingling of melodic black metal with occasional death metal leanings is worthy of notice over the hordes of similar acts currently multiplying within label rosters like a particularly virulent bacteria wasn't challenging enough for them, they decided to make it a bloody concept album too! The mind boggles...
Ambitious lyricism aside, the music stands up admirably well when examined on its own. Aided and abbetted by a powerful, sharp production, Abused Majesty specialise in generally blast-beat paced black metal batterings, clearly indebted in more or less equal measure to latter-day Emperor and Dimmu Borgir, though without the annoying prevalence of keyboards to be found with the latter. In fact, the keyboards are very tastefully implemented in this record, serving mainly to fill out the sound and occasionally to contribute an effective piano melody. However, keyboard interlude 'The Crown of the Serpentine King' is just a tad too Cradle Of Filth for my liking...
The arrangements and songwriting are top notch, the ripping guitar tone supporting the catchy, incisive riffage and backed up with a certain death metal-indebted crunch that makes for an unusually heavy feel for a melodic black metal release. The three-pronged vocal attack adds an extra element of diversity also, ranging from death growls, black metal rasping screams and spoken word sections as the song demands. That diversity is backed up in the songs themselves - 'The Fall Of The Black Fortress' has passages that sound like Monstrosity with black metal blastbeats, while 'A Burning Army' begins with some extremely hooky melo-death-alike riffage before settling into tremolo-picked velocity once more.
So, it seems that Abused Majesty managed to live up to the promise of their ambitions - all that remains is to see where this talented group go from here.
7.5/10
Official Abused Majesty Website
Official Adipocere Records Website
Adipocere Records - CDAR99 - 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
Polish quintet Abused Majesty clearly aren't ones to make things easy for themselves. This is their debut full-length album, and as if having to prove their mingling of melodic black metal with occasional death metal leanings is worthy of notice over the hordes of similar acts currently multiplying within label rosters like a particularly virulent bacteria wasn't challenging enough for them, they decided to make it a bloody concept album too! The mind boggles...
Ambitious lyricism aside, the music stands up admirably well when examined on its own. Aided and abbetted by a powerful, sharp production, Abused Majesty specialise in generally blast-beat paced black metal batterings, clearly indebted in more or less equal measure to latter-day Emperor and Dimmu Borgir, though without the annoying prevalence of keyboards to be found with the latter. In fact, the keyboards are very tastefully implemented in this record, serving mainly to fill out the sound and occasionally to contribute an effective piano melody. However, keyboard interlude 'The Crown of the Serpentine King' is just a tad too Cradle Of Filth for my liking...
The arrangements and songwriting are top notch, the ripping guitar tone supporting the catchy, incisive riffage and backed up with a certain death metal-indebted crunch that makes for an unusually heavy feel for a melodic black metal release. The three-pronged vocal attack adds an extra element of diversity also, ranging from death growls, black metal rasping screams and spoken word sections as the song demands. That diversity is backed up in the songs themselves - 'The Fall Of The Black Fortress' has passages that sound like Monstrosity with black metal blastbeats, while 'A Burning Army' begins with some extremely hooky melo-death-alike riffage before settling into tremolo-picked velocity once more.
So, it seems that Abused Majesty managed to live up to the promise of their ambitions - all that remains is to see where this talented group go from here.
7.5/10
Official Abused Majesty Website
Official Adipocere Records Website
