Erevos are certainly not amateurs when it comes to playing music, with at least 7 years of experience and 5 releases under their belt, even though
Descensus Ad Inferos is their debut full length album. The promotional text on the cover of the album, recommending the album to fans of bands like
Dissection and
Deicide caught my attention, being a casual listener to both bands, and also left me with a certain level of expectation since the band has quoted 2 such high-profile bands as some of their influences.
While the promises managed to capture my attention initially, they left me slightly disappointed as well. The music right from the start of the album sounds more like symphonic black metal rather than music similar to the aforementioned bands. The high presence of the keyboards on songs such as
Adou Katavasis makes the music sound more like what bands like Enslavement of Beauty would put out instead, though the style of
Erevos is considerably heavier, and the band sounds tighter as well. It can't be denied though, that the music on
Descensus Ad Inferos has sufficient balance between melodic and heavy elements, and gets pretty enjoyable after awhile.
The vocals of Growler manages to infuse elements of emotion and sincerity in the music, and alternates between black metal styled shrieks and brutal death metal styled throaty growls. They also display different styles of playing as well, alternating between chugging riffs and trem-picked sections, at times punctuating the riffs with pinch harmonics. The numerous solos littered throughout the album also display the technical brilliance on their instruments. Drummer Tek also shines on the album, and while nothing particularly technical or flashy, he manages to keep the pace of the band.
The songwriting is heavily reminiscent of the many symphonic black metal bands such as the aforementioned Enslavement of Beauty and
Anorexia Nervosa, such as on The Omnipotence of the Judges, where the keyboards take a background role and complements the music through shrouding the song in a dense atmosphere. However, often songs begin with a hopeful start, such as on Those Who
Decide about
Fate, but the band soon breaks into awkward moments through a sudden unexpected change of style instead of following up on the foundation that they have put in place with the introductory sections of the song.
Throughout the album though, there are many instances of the keys of Tisiphoni sounding awkward and out of place, as if the band were unsure what they wanted and threw them in randomly and this certainly causes much disruption to the enjoyment of the music. Many times, the inclusion of keys are certainly unneeded and the album would have fared better without the keys, or if it had taken the role of a background instrument in creating and maintaining the atmosphere instead, such as on The Omnipotence of the Judges.
The lyrics are also another aspect of the music that caught my attention. While it is understandable that English might not be the first language of the band, and simple lyrics would make it easier for fans to understand the message that the band is trying to get across, some of the lyrics inevitably come across as awkward, such as on
Possessed by the
Moon, where Growler growls out "fuck, fuck, fuck the cross!" to an unintentionally funny effect, despite the powerful song title.
That said though, whether this makes the song more or less effective or enjoyable is entirely up to the listener to decide, though in a weird way, this also has the effect of making the lyrics more entertaining to read, and make curious listeners want to find out what Growler is growling about as well.
Descensus Ad Inferos, while being a commendable effort for a band's debut album, certainly does not do justice to the years of experience the band has, with few memorable albums throughout. Nevertheless, this album is recommended for fans of melodic and symphonic black metal.
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