lista zespołów Melodic Death Black Sacramentum Far Away from the Sun

Reading the title you can easily tell my opinions about this album, this is the best album I have ever listened to, this album completely smashes the vastly overrated Storm Of The Light's Bane in every aspect. The only bands I can think of who have produced albums that almost match the quality featured on here would be Alcest's Écailles de Lune, Burzum with Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, Children Of Bodom's first three albums, Enthrone Darkness Triumphant by Dimmu Borgir, Kalmah's Swamplord, Noumena's Absence and In Flames' Colony, The Jester Race and Whoracle although none of those albums can quite match up to the standard set on this one.

Sacramentum is a band that is criminally over looked in the metal world, they are frequently labelled as a Dissection clone. This comment is completely ridiculous on two levels. Reason one although you can draw parallels to their sound there is enough differences between the two, Dissection are darker and more evil whilst Sacramentum aren't as dark and are much more melodic. Reason two this record completely wrecks every single one of Dissection's releases in all aspects and that isn't an over statement. First track into this album and it had already won me over it's that good.

The instrumentation featured on this album is perfect. Lots of melody on present here, although some people claim melody adds cheese to an album on here it is absolutely necessary, the melody is absolutely spectacular not to mention how memorable everything is, seriously this is one of the most memorable albums I have heard in a long time, the riffs are catchy as hell and they often creep into my head at random intervals, usually not in the best place i.e. in an exam. The riffs linger on in my head long after the last track has ended. The best example of Sacramentum's melody is the track Blood Shall Be Spilled, about 3 minutes in the track slows down a bit and then climaxes into the catchiest segment of the whole album. I seriously recommend listening to this song first. Another notable aspect is the lack of keyboards, although I love symphony driven music (Carach Angren are killer) I find that it makes a nice change for once and allows the guitars to take the forefrunt, although there is one usage of keyboards, it is featured on the last track and partakes in some shrill high pitched tones to finish off the album, a very good way to end it in my opinion. The bass as is so common in black metal is usually buried in the mix, quite a number of people have a problem with an inaudable bass and I do agree it can get a bit bothersome but if there was a significant bass present featured on Far Awar From The Sun personally I don't think it would have worked. The drums aren't worthy of much notification because I'm not a drummer and I don't really pay attention to the drums no matter what I'm listening to.

Now onto the vocals, the vocalist from Sacramentum sounds similar to Jon from Dissection, they both have that distant ghostly rasp that echoes throughout the music. There are also some occasional growls in the mix though they're not common, in fact they're only featured slightly in the track Blood Shall Be Spilled. Another reason for my love of this album is the lack of clean vocals, although I don't have anything against them I just find that they very rarely work in black metal, some bands can pull it off i.e. Aaskereia and Catamenia but for the most part they sound as out of place as a shriek in a pop song.

Atmosphere is also good, nice and cold just like I'd want in black metal, when I say cold I don't mean cold as in a sense that Paysage D'hiver is cold, I mean in a sense that there's an overarching feeling of darkness and isolation and that you truly are Far Away from the Sun. Lyrics are another aspect worthy of note, they're not the usual church burning anti christian themes that dominates the black metal genre, although they are still hate filled and there are numerous references to Satan (well it is black metal!), they're much more well written that the standard affair and they're fairly similar to Dissection in the topics they cover and how they are written.

Overall this album is absolutely astonishing this is the pinnacle of music and if you consider yourself a fan of extreme metal then you owe it to yourself to pick this up. Forget Storm Of The Night's Bane this is Black Metal's greatest release.
Overall rating- 20/20
Best tracks- They're all perfect but Beyond All Horizons, Blood Shall Be Spilled and Cries From A Restless Soul are the best.