CoC : Sacramentum - Far Away from the Sun : Review

Sacramentum - _Far Away from the Sun_
(Adipocere, 1996)
by: Brian Meloon (8 out of 10)

On their first full-length offering, Sacramentum fix most of the mistakes they made on _Finis Malorum_. Gone are the out of tune parts, (most of) the off-time parts, and the poor production. What's left? Something that sounds a lot like Dissection. They even have blue/black cover artwork by Necrolord, and their pictures are in boxes on the back liner. But to discount them as Dissection rip-offs on this basis alone would be foolish. Their style is less aggressive than Dissection, but more intricate, avoiding the overly straightforward approach that Dissection's latest (see CoC #4) suffered from. As with Hypocrite (see review this issue), their melodic parts are usually either harmonized or have countermelodies, which is a technique that I think works especially well. As was the case with their MCD (although not quite as much so), the songs on this offering vary often, switching riffs every couple of times that they're played. In some cases, this amounts to nothing more than a change of key or a different drum beat, but it does help to keep the album from getting boring too quickly. Overall, I was a little disappointed by this album, but I did have high hopes for it, and it nearly delivered. I'd recommended it for Dissection and melodic black metal fans.

(article published 11/10/1996)

ALBUMS
2/13/1999	P Schwarz	7.5	Sacramentum - Thy Black Destiny
11/17/1997	P Schwarz	6	Sacramentum - The Coming Of Chaos