Antihelion
(War Anthem Records)
46:53min
Close to 20 years of band history, mighty UNLIGHT strike back with their seventh output entitled "Antihelion". The first track or intro is a brilliant instrumental track and already spreads out this special dark mood that reminds me again a bit of mighty DISSECTION. The first real track ‘Create And Annihilate’ starts fast and melodic and simply is the best track the band has written so far. A brilliant piece of dark art and besides UADA the best Black Metal work I have heard for ages. Already on their last brilliant album "The Katalyst Of The Katharsis" I thought the band had reached their musical peak but surprisingly they managed to top themselves once again. Fast and precise riffing, freezing melodies, precise drumming and the cool harsh vocals which get completed by wonderful fitting choral chants and melodic but freezing guitars. This track really is one of the best Black Metal songs I was honored to hear in the last years. Still working deep in the underground the band managed to record a majestic masterpiece of eleven tracks which easily puts them in the top twenty league of Black Metal bands worldwide. Their musical work still is influenced by the Scandinavian scene of the 90s but they developed their own style out of this and have become so unique that all bands which consider to play melodic Black Metal should orientate themselves on bands like UNLIGHT. Their majestic hymns are so full of details and love for their work that this album definitely must be their creative peak and will be difficult to be surpassed in the future. Once again the killer leads and guitar work must be mentioned which could also have fitted on every classic Heavy Metal album and this gives their Black Metal a varying painting. Listening to the album, it is difficult to mention a single song as "Antihelion" is a whole piece of art with no fillers or tracks on it which seem to be weak in any case. This is how Black Metal should sound nowadays and these musicians are the elite of the scene, nothing else. This blasphemic piece of art should easily manage to get into the top five of Black Metal albums in 2016. The only thing that confused me is their new band logo, which looks like one of the logos WATAIN uses and UNLIGHT definitely are in the same league so no need for any advertising similar to other bands. A must-have for any Black Metal lunatic. www.facebook.com/pages/unlight/109910895724998, http://unlight.bandcamp.com, www.war-anthem.de
Michael Kujawska
• UNLIGHT - Eldest Born Of Hell (Wes Rhodes )