Well, the PR for Anael's latest, _From Arcane Fires_, was gracious enough to tag it as "occult black metal", but muddied the waters a bit by listing the album as "for fans of: Rotting Christ, Varathron, Tiamat, Samael, Absu". Furthermore they quote an unnamed webzine as adding comparisons to Melechesh, Xantatol, Taranis, Holy Death... see, this is why I don't like citing band names in reviews for the purposes of illustrating an artist's sonic repertoire. The above bands are so disparate that I can't see a single group combining all the influences without being completely all over the plate, but the synthesis of those influences are broad enough that they could lead you in a thousand different directions.

Since the A&R reps as well as other reviewers would likely cite brevity as a primary reason for invoking band comparisons, let's see if I can't convey a more descriptive analysis of what the band sound like without dropping names: regal, ceremonial, wilfully plodding and mysterious, Anael purvey a lumbering brand of hazily produced ritual metal, atmostpheric but not esoteric, restrained by the frenzied over-the-top standards of much black metal... complexity without technicality. Guitars seem to be tuned for droning but are forced to play quarter- and half-notes, maybe the occasional whole note at best. Seraphackh does a solid job mixing up his vocal delivery but Premeumathon's drumming is rarely better than metronomic and predictable, plus those guitars are really pretty unengaging, more like a muffled smear across the sonic canvas than a well articulated addition to the ensemble. Not a catastrophe by any means, but underdeveloped and hardly essential.