Keep Of Kalessin/Epistomology/Indie Recordings/2015 CD Review

  Keep  Of  Kalessin  are  a  band  from  Norway  that  is  very  well  known  and  also  have  had  an  album  reviewed  before  in  this  zine  and  this  recording  shows  them  going  even  more  towards  a  mainstream  style  of  melodic  black  metal  and  this  is  a  review  of  their  2015  album  "Epistomology"  which  will b e  released  in  February  by  Indie  Recordings.

  A  very  dark  science  fiction  style  intro  starts  off  the  album  along  with  some  synths  a  few  seconds  later  and  after  the  intro  the  music  goes  more  of  a  fast  and  raw  black  metal  direction  along  with  a  good  amount  of  blast  beats  while  still  having  an  atmospheric  background  and  a  few  seconds  alter  clean  singing  vocals  are  added  into  the  music  and  all  of  th e musicla  instruments  have  a  very  powerful  sound  to  them.

  Spoken  word  parts  can  be  heard  in  certain  sections  of  the  recording  and  you  can  also  hear  a  great  amount  of  thrash  influences  in  the  guitar  riffing  and  the  songs  also  bring  in  a  good  mixture  of  slow,  mid  paced  and  fast  parts  and  when  solos  and  leads  are  utilized  they  demonstrate  a  great  amount  of  talent,  skill  and  melody  and  some  of  the  tracks  are  very  long  and  epic  in  length.

  After  awhile  grim  black  metal  vocals  find  their  way  into  the  music  while  melodic  singing  is  still  used  on  quite  of  a  regular  basis  along  with  the  guitar  riffing  utilizing  a  decent  amount  of  melody  and  just  like  many  other  Norwegian  black  metal  bands  before  them  the  music  has  gone  in  more  of  a  mainstream  direction  and  lacks  the  power  of  the  earlier  material  while  they  have  progresses  quite  a  bit  as  musicians  and  have  a  modern  style  to  them.

  Keep  Of  Kalessin  creates  an  album  that  still  has  roots  in  black  metal  but  also  mixes  in  more  of  a  melodic  and  modern  thrash  sound  that  continues  the  progression  they  have  been  making  with  previous  recordings  and  while  the  music  is  not  bad  it  would  not  more  accepted  by  some  of  the  fans  of  their  earlier  material,  the  production  sounds  very  professional  while  the  lyrics  cover  science  fiction  and  fantasy  themes.

  In  my  opinion  this  is  a  decent  sounding  recording  from  Keep  Of  Kalessin  and  if  you  are  a  fan  of  their  newer  material,  you  should  check  out  this  album.  RECOMMENDED  TRACKS  INCLUDE  "The  Spiritual  Relief"  "Necropolis"  and  "Epistomology".  7/5  out  of  10.  

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Keep Of Kalessin/Kolossus/Nuclear Blast/Indie Recordings/2008 CD REVIEW

  Keep Of Kalessin  are a band from Norway that has been around since the 90's and started out as pure black metal in the Norwegian vein but have evolved into more of a mixture of black, death, and thrash with recent recordings and this is a review of their 2008 album "Kolossus" which was released by Nuclear Blast Records in the United States and Indie Recordings in Norway.

Drums on this recording range from slow technical parts to some fast blast beats that utilize influences from the many different genres of metal, while the bass playing is all rhythm bass and follows the riffs coming out of the guitars and on one of the songs I could hear a violins well as a piano.

Rhythm guitars contain a lot of melody and there is a mixture of fast and slow riffs that mix thrash with black metal and some classic metal, while the lead guitars use a lot of melodic guitar solos that have classic metal influences, as for the acoustic guitars when they are used they sound very dark and utilize a lot of full chords and there is an occasional use of a classic guitar being used with some middle eastern scales that are finger picked.

Vocals have a thrash influenced black metal feel with some deep death metal growling and at times they are clean singing vocals being utilized that have some power/speed metal influences, while the production on this recording which was recorded at Morningstar Studio during Nov 07 through Jan 2008 sounds very professional and you can hear all of the musical instruments that are on this album.

Lyrics are mostly sci fi and fantasy topics with referenced to fictional gods, while the artwork on the album is a blade that kind of looks like a cross  between a snake or a dragon.

In my opinion this is a good album and while at times it has some of the modern elements that I don't like that much in newer metal there are still enough classic metal influences to keep me interest, if you are a fan of their earlier stuff which was a lot more black metal you will be disappointed and call this band sellouts, but if you are an open minded fan of extreme metal you will enjoy this opinion.

STANDOUT TRACKS INCLUDE "The Rising SUn" "Warmonger" "The Mark Of Power" and "Ascendent", in addition my cd came with a bonus dvd. RECOMMENDED  BUY.

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