renkls
A recent one-track album that was a surprise for the fans of Impiety, given that they mostly stick to four to five minute thrashy black metal pieces. So a 38 minute song in their thrashy black metal style was obviously unexpected. Generally too, it was not met with a great deal of praise, and I mostly echo the same sentiments other critical reviews of this album have brought up.
There are certain factors which make a single track album venture difficult to pull off successfully. First and foremost for me is success to the point of diminishing returns. Because you cannot simply pick out the best parts and listen to them specifically, a one track album is a fully invested venture. It requires you to be switched on over its entire length. If it can pull that off, then it's a great success. However, even then, because of its typically daunting length, you'll not revisit it often. Impiety's effort here fails to succeed on the first ground due to a loss of interest on my behalf after less then 15 minutes have passed.
The album itself revolves around three or four linked themes in the music, repeating themselves multiple times over the length of the piece. Normally this is not a problem, Edge of Sanity's Crimson for instance, recycled themes to great effect and did so with an efficency that never made its length feel excessive. The same cannot be said here. This is really EP length material stretched further then it should have been, a great 20 minute track with 18 minutes of filler. Because of its one track design, and the above problem in consideration, this won't likely be a record on continuous replay.
That isn't to say that there are not highlight moments to the piece, the first five minutes kick it off to a great start, promising and hard edged. If it could keep the progression of this early stage going, rather then simply revisiting what had already been done after the first ten minutes, it would maintain interest a lot more. The final few minutes is also a good conclusion, but somehow, still feels unsatisfying due to no real drive or major progressions established from the meandering middle section.
Production wise, this album is pretty good; I will mention however that the drums are not something I view positively. It feels like they just drum a repetitive thumping all the way through with nothing to really give the record any great impact. Unfortunately, this album was not really that great for me. Sure, it had its moments but overall, something I don't visit too often. I'll be generous and give it 3 stars though. Worth checking out once if you like thrashy black metal - but for a real thrashy black metal epic, listen to Sabbat's The Dwelling instead.