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SETHERY - Kholera |
Woodcut Records | |
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Posted: 3/5/05Reviewed by: Steve Gottlieb Category: Black Metal Released: 2004 Label URL: www.woodcutrecords.com Artist URL: www.sethery.com | |
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Like the nasty infectious disease that inspired the album title, Finnish band Sethery put forth an incredibly vicious, yet also incredibly infectious, effort on their debut album. If Dimmu Borgir’s landmark 1997 album Enthrone Darkness Triumphant had a little punk-ass brother that thought he was meaner and tougher, Kholera would be it. From the opening riff of “Demons Spoke the Lullaby” to the closing seconds of “Vulturous Hectoric Aspect,” this album exudes power. Lots of it. More than your average black metal album is supposed to, in fact. The riffs, and there are plenty of ‘em, are thick, meaty, and precise, and the band plays with a synchronization reminiscent of technical death metal. The keyboards add to the wall of sound, and the end result is nothing short of overwhelming. Second track “Mindblast Cholera” has a magnificently creepy riff that instantly transports you to some godforsaken place envisioned by the cd cover art. The hornet-droning riffs that spring up throughout the album, matched in intensity only by the blastbeats, keep the pace moving along furiously, and provide the perfect backdrop for the sore-throat raspiness of dual vocalists Henttunen and Lehto, who also happen to play guitars and bass, respectively. Soundwise, production-wise, riff-wise, this is one monster of a cd.
The Bloody Truth: Although Kholera’s template album, Dimmu Borgir’s Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, had only one guitar solo, that’s still one more than can be found in Kholera’s 39 minutes, and is the real reason this one didn’t get a higher mark. Play some solos, boys! However, despite the similarities of the two albums, the sound quality on Kholera is so immense that it deserves to be heard by any of Dimmu Borgir’s fans, or even fans of the genre that appreciate technicality and production instead of the raw, underproduced sound that has plagued many a black metal band.
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