Sons of Azrael - Scouting the Boneyard
Whether or not these guys are a black metal band is debatable from one song to the next. There is a distinct Immortal influence, especially in the vocals, and there are plenty of blast beats to go around. Unlike Abbath, though, the vocalist changes it up quite a bit and unlike Immortal, there are some blatantly "un-black" metal parts. Whatever you want to call it, Scouting the Boneyard is pretty damn ferocious.
My biggest gripe about this record is the lyrical content. You can hear just about every word and the lyrics are pretty damn simple and, at times, pretty lame. Also, the vocals sound pretty dry, no room sound or reverb at all, which makes them sound almost seperated from the rest of the music. These things aside, he's a good vocalist and his style compliments the music very well.
The first song, Welcome to the World, screams black metal. Scratchy, throaty vocals screaming about how much god (presumably the christian kind) sucks over blazing, trebly guitars and a furious beats, many of them blasts. After that, the blackness of the album dies down a little, aside from the lyrics which deal heavily with satan and evil and such. There are songs like Arson and Apathy and The Grand Design that are more thrashy and, at times, borderline hardcore.
Scouting the Boneyard is a well rounded album. SoA use several styles of playing that are signatures of certain genres but they don't stick solely to any of them. What they do is meld them all together, showing off their versatility and a true appreciation and understanding of thrashy, fast metal. This one is definitely worth a spin.
Rating System
Thrash Magazine's overall rating system is based on the following criteria. Sons of Azrael received a 7.2 because of the following:
Instrumental Rating (1-30): 25
Vocal Rating (1-30): 26
Lyrical Rating (1-25): 10
Presentation Rating (1-15): 11