CoC : Code - Nouveau Gloaming : Review

Code - _Nouveau Gloaming_
(Spikefarm Records, 2005)
by: Jackie Smit (7 out of 10)

This is disappointing, although in the grand scheme of things it should probably not have come as any great surprise. After all, how many perfect debuts have been released in the history of extreme, or indeed any other style of music? Still, when a band can boast a line-up that sports members of Ulver and Ved Buens Ende and can kick off their first full-length effort with a track that is bristling with enough malevolence and spite to peel the paint off walls, it's always going to be a let-down when the rest of the record can't live up to that initial surge of excitement. What's frustrating here is that it's not down to a lack of fresh ideas either; the slight over a large part of this 50-minute opus is cast in a big way by the band's insistence on incorporating as many eclectic and avant-garde strains into the songs as time seems to allow. Sometimes this lateral thinking does work, as evidenced by the ominous ambience of closer "Ghost Formula"; but for the most part, it only detracts from what this band does well: dark, menacing black metal that, in spite of its faults, ranks with some of the finest material Spikefarm Records has released in quite some time.

Contact: http://www.spinefarm.fi

(article published 19/4/2005)

CHATS
31/5/2005	J Smit	Code: A New Darkness Upon Us

ALBUMS
14/2/2010	P Azevedo	9	Code - Resplendent Grotesque