Originally written by Ryan Plunkett
What a stellar year for black metal this has been. Already receiving solid new releases from 1349, Mayhem, Leviathan, and Blut Aus Nord, we are yet again blessed by the bowels of hell with the latest offering from Azrael, entitled Into the Shadows Act II: Through Horned Shadows Glimpse.
Picking up where their previous effort left off, Azrael combines a sense of progressiveness to their harsh cold brand of black metal. Using the contrabass (the huge stand-up one, if you will) to its fullest extent, aiding in the thickness of the album, this adds a nice to touch from the usual barrage of blastbeats or often lame keyboard passages. Giving a firm sense of atmosphere, Azrael mixes haunting guitar passages with drawn out ambient breaks that help solidify this album in the ranks of the top-tier black metal releases this year. And what would this album be without epic songs like “Shroud of Icy Stillness” or “Dawn of Abysmal Crypts” which show Azrael at the top of their game.
As each song slides into the next you truly, get a sense of what true atmospheric black metal is about. Chilling acoustic passages tossed between the onslaught of icy guitar riffs, howling screams, and ambient passages that are sure to send a chill down your spine should you find yourself listening to them at night in the dark. Into the Shadows… does an excellent job of displaying Lord Samaiza’s and Algol’s knack for putting together a stunning album. The production is raw, but strong where it needs to be, like within the acoustic and ambient passages. For those of you eating up the black metal frenzy much like myself, here is yet another slab of raw meat to throw onto your plate and devour. With lots to absorb within the album, this will stay in your disc player for weeks. Azrael has released a surefire black metal hit, do not pass this up.
