Imagine that early Black Metal style DARKTHRONE decided to go in a more Rock’n’Roll direction, yet keeping the raw sound and lo-fi production, and having a vocalist that alternates between clean singing and various styles of Black Metal shrieks. Ok, this is how this band from the Netherlands sounds on their second album. Actually if it’s not for the drowned drum sound, the recording is not that bad. The guitar tone is raw and almost bass-less, yet there are some good melodies hidden in there. So, actually at times this is not that far away from how some of later Fenriz and Co. sounds. Yes, there are many Heavy Metal moments, many Punk moments and many Doom Metal moments here. Actually the clean vocals are very good, reminding me of master Dan Swanö at times. Not only the clean vocals are good, but the vocalist has quite a good variety when doing the more evil vocals. Yet, I feel that using clean vocals and grim frost Black Metal sounds, actually give them a very unique sound. They even dare to include one whole song which is some kind of old western sounding acoustic Rock that would not be out of place in an old Cantina in the Wild West. At times things remind me of some ROOT, as probably using their native language gives them that edge. Interesting music, yet I don’t see why they make the drums sound like they were recorded with pillows. That leaves space for development in the future, but I’m interested in what lies ahead. www.facebook.com/vanrecords