CoC : Vanquished - Black Northern Storm : Review

Vanquished - _Black Northern Storm_
(Krankenhaus Records, 2005)
by: Aaron McKay (4.5 out of 10)

Pretty much -the- definition of ordinary back metal. Vanquished would like you to believe they are cut from the same cloth as _Storm of the Light's Bane_ era Dissection or maybe Immortal's _At the Heart of Winter_ type material, when in all actuality Vanquished is reinventing the wheel with _Black Northern Storm_. The underlying question is what more can be done on the black metal front to blaze new trails. Whatever the answer and whatever your opinion, these eight tracks comprising this Canadian three-piece's newest endeavor apparently has been guided by a different star. There are no keyboard melodies, and punishingly brutal tracks are the name of the game, but where is the imagination, originality, or any shade of inimitability? Track five shares the title of the release. This I will grant you: if one were to pick a song name this disc for, "Black Northern Storm" would be the one. The entire effort fades off with an excruciatingly long segue following the conclusion of "Ascendancy of the Boreal Wake", the eighth cut, that would be nearly an imperceptible transition but for the stark lack of anything remotely connected to the album except for duration of the disc in its entirety; that, my friends, is not a plus. Slap in Mayhem's _De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas_ again and call it all good.

Contact: http://www.krankenhaus.ca

(article published 27/9/2005)