I've heard some negative things about this band, and have often seen them referred to as noresecore. So I decided to check them out, simply out of curiosity. On this CD, In Battle do not play black metal, nor do they try to. The music is essentially fast extreme metal. It isn't exactly death metal, but it also isn't black metal. Perhaps blackened death may be somewhat of an accurate discription, since the riffing style is somewhat death metal influenced, while the atmosphere and general feel of the music is black metallish. Most of the riffs are actually quite thrashy, with lots of fast palm muted picking, though they are played far faster than thrash. There are occasional black metal tremolo riffs thrown in here and there, but they are not a dominant characteristic of the sound of this album. The drums are fast and very tight, and blast beats are abundant on this album. However, the blast beats never drown out the riffs, which is a characteristic that is integral to a good extreme metal CD in my opinion. The production is very good, and fitting of the music. The guitar sound is crisp and sharp, and you can clearly hear everything that the guitars play. The vocals are somewhere between black metal and death metal vocals. They are not the high pitched screech that is common for black metal vocals, but they are also not low pitched gutteral death grunts. They lie somewhere in between, and sound harsh and aggressive, complimenting the aggressive nature of the riffage and drumming. I will not review individual songs on this CD, because they are all in the same vein. They are all fast for the most part, with occasional slower melodic passages, which contrast with the high speed aural assault that characterizes the band's general sound. This CD has the potential to appeal to black metal fans, death metal fans, and thrash fans. But don't expect the CD to exactly fit any of those genres.
