Lista de Bandas Death Black Khaos Reign The Reign of Signs

From the darkest reaches of Europe, comes Khaos Reign, with musical artwork derived from the darkest stretches of the human imagination. They utilize recurring themes from beyond the dark ages, when men relied on dreams and occult fortune telling to conduct their daily lives. The album art depicts a painting of Sargon, who is being enlightened by a cosmic fox. Sargon was a conqueror and emperor of Mesopotamia, well over 4 thousand years ago. He murdered his way up to the top and was an ancient day dictator of steel. His reign of power seems to have some congruence to Stalin, in modern history. So that's the way that I surmise how this young Russian band can relate themselves to such an obscure figure in ancient history. In the leaflet to this demo, they suggest that they were influenced by Polish death metal bands. So does The Reign of Signs show any signs of Polish death metal?

The vocalist/rhythm guitar player goes by the name Sargon. His guttural performance is deep and lifeless as a zombie, who is being recharged to life by the music. His vocal traits are very consistent to the approach of Ross Dolan from Immolation. The lyrics seem to involve an astrological interpretation that leads to moonlit raids on the surrounding territories. So that he could enrich and expand his own empire, via bloody slaughters. The guitar tandem of Obcidian and Sargon mesh well together, chopping methodically like a factory of mass murder. The song called The Apocalypse Rise features jumpy and shuffling rhythms, that seem to have been borrowed from the Decapitated song called The First Damned. They hit the power chords wretchedly to emanate a mood of horror. Elsewhere they exhibit a lot of Swedish black metal textures, with plenty of fast and flashy tremolo crossover patterns. They are very catchy and melodic, with the intricacy that Ornias of Svartsyn is known for. A couple of the tracks sound too similar and almost the same.

Atal usually plucks his bass at a fast tempo with heavy rhythms. Sometimes repeating the same note in succession, sounding like the polka influences that surface mostly in Scandinavian metal. In the song called Existence Emperors he plays condescending dark rhythms, that dwindle to the lower notes, like drag marks in the dirt that lead down to a hidden corpse. Basically his bass playing resembles that of Anssi Makinen of Khert-Neter. The demo's leaflet says that the drummer, Xandr, took part in this release. As though he wasn't a permanent band member. There's never a dull moment percussion wise, he's right on top of his game. The drums are played very fast, hitting a variety of beat tones, and melodic patterns. The cymbal rattling and crashing are constant for extra explosiveness. He really adds some depth to the already rich sound of the stringed instrumentation. Xandr is a very good drummer, I've heard a lot of less inspired percussionists. His style and skill level reminds me of Jarkko Ratanen from Adramelech.

Utilizing history as a motif, is something that I don't come across too often. Vreid has been successful with working from that angle, so it can be practicable. Gimmicks are generally used by bands as a way to stand out, if their music isn't outstanding enough. Some bands have made a lot of money with their extra creativity. So does The Reign of Signs bear any resemblance to Polish death metal? Although they seem to have borrowed a couple of riffs from Decapitated, I think that their music resembles Scandinavian metal more closely than it does their alleged Polish influences. I would say that they sound something like Svartsyn meets Khert-Neter. It's flashier than a swiftly swinging sword, yet just as heavy as a severed human head. The only room for improvement that I notice, is in the way of repetitiveness. Two of the songs capitalize on the same riff. Maybe they could have called them parts I and II of the same title. But what the hell? This is just a short demo, from a talented young band.