Crusty Seattle blackened death quartet Book Of Black Earth have offered interesting moments in the past, but nothing as impressively sustained as The Cold Testament: The band’s third, strongest full-length carves out a darker, harsher, more memorable (almost sing-along) sound than what we’ve heard on past offerings. For starters, they dropped their keyboardist since 2008′s conceptual Horoskopus; as a result, these eight songs/36 minutes are more guitar driven, punk-feeling, raw, and plenty worthy the Phobia shirt in the below band photo. You’ll probably also note — after monster opener “Weight Of The World” and blistering second track “Cross Contamination” — that the overall feel’s looser, while remaining coiled, sharp-focused, tight (even on epic 7-minute closer “I See Demons”). The Cold Testament was tracked with Chris Common (Pelican, The Sword) at Seattle’s Red Room Studio and mixed/mastered by Dan Swano (Bloodbath, Nasum, Opeth) at Unisound in Sweden. Listen:
The Cold Testament is out 5/24 via Prosthetic.
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Me gustan. Me gustan mucho.
Not bad. What’s with the intelligible vocals, though?
Can I get a “hell yeah”? Hell yeah, I can. You can just feel the urgency when each track launches and I just added this to my “must buy” list. Makes me think of the late-90s, especially His Hero Is Gone, but with a couple twists gathered over the past decade. Great sequencing, killer energy, and I love the looser production. Can’t wait to play this in my car… and to see it live.
After one spin, I’m definitely feeling this cats. Metal releases are coming from every corner, especially in May. Need to clone myself to keep up!
Totally digging this one, thanks.
Completely unrelated to this: I watched Such Hawks, Such Hounds with a couple buddies last night and was pleasantly surprised to have seen you in it for 10 seconds. Very cool.
aw so fucking awesome. Heavy as a real heavy thing. More like this!