Lista de los grupos Black Death Adversarial Prophetic Plain of Abyssal Revelation

Canada has a penchant for producing bands playing the now famous war metal genre, with Blasphemy being the pioneering band playing this form of black/death metal, with their personal dirty touch added to produce what we now know as war metal. Unsurprisingly then, fellow countrymen Adversarial have chosen to play metal in similar veins as their predecessors.

After their highly acclaimed 2008 demo and debut full length last year, Adversarial is back once more with their new EP, Prophetic Plain of Abyssal Revelation, featuring songs from the Thralls demo era and 3 previously unreleased tracks (including Archgoat and Incantation cover songs). Before going on further, perhaps it is best to include a disclaimer that this EP is the first material that I have ever heard from the band, so there won't be any comparisons to the original demo from 2008.

The album opens with Scourge of a World Ablaze, which starts off with an acoustic guitar passage before the chaos falls unto the listener with the raw and dirty production and crushing riffs. The usage of acoustic passages such as those on the opening track will not be the only one as Adversarial constantly use them throughout the album to provide the haunting atmosphere in the music.

As the chaos begins, the first thing that one notices is C.S.'s vocals: deep guttural growls (similar to most brutal death metal bands), pierced by the occasional higher pitched shrieks. The music is also backed by a competent rhythmic section, with drummer E.K. hitting the snare relentlessly and forcing the band to go into breakneck speed with his machine-gun speed double bass drumming. The occasional guitar solo such as on the track Thralls provide a breath of fresh air in the heavy atmosphere. However, the bass guitar is overshadowed on the album, yet somehow the album does not falter because of this, and perhaps it could have been the result of having an album as raw as this.

With the title track, the band displays another style of production quality, this time having the song produced with the lower end of the spectrum mixed lower, having a more trebly production and this certainly has an impact on the music as the drumming is now more crisp and the guitar tones more sharp. While this provides another type of experience to Adversarial's music, whether one prefers this or the previous bassy/muddy production is ultimately up to one's personal preferences.

Also, on the unreleased track, Impending Eternal Darkness, C.S. chooses a different approach towards his vocals, one that is more decipherable and more reminiscent of Blasphemy's Nocturnal Grave Desecrator And Black Winds, and the overall music more reminiscent of the usual war metal with the more chaotic riffs and songwriting.

The personal highlight on the EP is the cover of Archgoat's The Light-Devouring Darkness, one of my favourite tracks by Archgoat. While the band's originals have been pretty much enjoyable, the EP slightly falters with this cover, as the song becomes slightly unrecognisable initially because of the increased tempo and the slightly chaotic riffing. C.S.'s vocal style, while trying to emulate Archgoat's Lord Angelslayer, is less of a drawl (such as on the parts where he goes "the light-devouring darkness...") and this provides a different touch to the song. It was also noticed that it is on this track that the bass guitar is particularly audible as well.

Overall though, an enjoyable EP and it leaves me impatient for the next album of the band to be released.