| CD REVIEW Book Of Black Earth |
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Band: Book Of Black Earth Book Of Black Earth, hailing from Seattle, Washington, US, were formed in 2003 by TJ Cowgill (v) and Hank Gutherie (k) when their former band Teen Cthulu was put to an end. After a split with Fall Of The Bastards (Evil Morgue Entertainment, 2005), a first studio (mini) album, The Feast (20 Buck Spin, 2007), and a few line-up changes, the band entered the Red Room studio in their home town and the result, lasting for fifty six minutes, is called Horoskopus. I guess you can consider Horoskopus some kind of grandiose present for the fifth anniversary of Book Of Black Earth. The album mainly goes on in the vein of the former recordings, yet again a strong evolution has taken place. Horoskopus stands for some kind of Death Metal, yet not ‘just Death Metal’. The varying songs (in tempo and melody) are keyboard-driven, and in some way this does remind me to the legendary Italian band Sinoath from time to time. These keyboards, whether they do play a leading role, or when they aren’t but colouring the whole, do give the hymns a certain symphonic atmosphere, which also brings names as Phlebotomized or Nocturnus to mind. Every single track is different and does contain varying elements and tempo-changes. Besides symphonic keyboards, the music is also clearly influenced by Doom Metal, Funeral Doom and Black Metal. The grim and sludgy, sometimes depressing and / or suicidal and / or occult and / or misanthropic atmosphere and the sublime, epic compositions reveal a cold vision of mystic superiority. The musical variation, the convincing power, the intelligent compositions, the perfect skills, the darkening atmosphere and the gargantuan sound are all of a very high quality and it means that Prosthetic have signed another winner, again! 92/100 Ivan Tibos. |