Advent Sorrow – Kali Yuga Crown

Band: Advent Sorrow
Title: Kali Yuga Crown
Label: Werewolf Records
Release date: 27 September 2019
Country: Australia
Format reviewed: Digital Promo

I have to admit, I believe this week I may have gotten my first taste of Australian based metal, at least as far as I can remember. As we in the northern hemisphere know, things such as the water in the toilets run the other way in the southern hemisphere; however I believe the metal scene is somewhat the same.

Released on May 3rd this year I realize the album “Kali Yuga Crown” by ADVENT SORROW has passed me by for a while, and even more so their debut album “As All Light Leaves Her” from 2015. What appeared to begin as a symphonic black/death metal band turned to the depressive black metal genre with their second full length release without fully letting go of the original genre they started out with four years ago. To begin with I wasn’t sure if this really would be my cup of tea, but that didn’t stop me from continuing my run-through.

After the intro track of “Vermindblood” my eyebrows were furrowed for a while. I wasn’t exactly sure what to think about the dark and gloomy intro, the unexpected vocals and the dissonance of the guitar riffs. Thankfully with the second track “Wolf & Weapon” the eyebrows were un-furrowed and more wrinkles avoided. To some degree it was catchy with some enjoyable melodies. The performance was up to standards and yet I remained mostly stumped at what to really think about this.

The title track, “Kali Yuga Crown”, is deep with agony and blasting drums. The agony-game is played by the vocalist who is on his way to the Olympics in the profession. The melodies make you feel bad so bad about everything, closing with a shriek of normal vocals. That was rad, I’ll give them that.

By the time I was half way through I realized the production had stayed the same for the entire thing. It is your typical black metal setup here, the drums in the far back distance with plenty of reverb attached. Shrieking guitars make it almost impossible to hear what they are playing with the melodies on top. The mix is drenched in reverb, making is spacious and chaotic. Very black metal.

“Wells of Poison Water” made the album take a slight turn with quite the beautiful intro and angelic sounding synths in the background; however, the heavy part is HEAVY! By then I had made the decision that this was my favorite track of the album by far. I also realized my admiration of the vocalist as “Majesty Enshrined” rolled around. I imagine he does not need a microphone when playing live; his voice does not need amplifying. Surely this cannot be easy.

Another change became obvious in “With Conviction” with different guitar tone, this track has more meat on its bones than the others or so to speak and finally the bass player appears in the closing track “Death in Magic Antagonism”.

Overall I wasn´t wrong with my first suspicion of this band not exactly being my cup of tea, however there is nothing wrong with the performance here. The production is quite modern, perhaps a little too modern for the taste of the elitist black metalists out there. Misanthropy is obvious in each track and the lyrics revolve around dark matters, although it doesn’t seem like they are connected to the music in the way you would want them to. The artwork on the other hand seems to be right on point with the music, which was a certain satisfaction. 5/10 Julia

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5/10 Floating in the sea of mediocrity
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