Review by Rexorcist for Sacramentum - Far Away From the Sun (1996)

Along with Dissection, Sacramentum is considered essential to the development of the melodic black metal subgenre.  When I was first exploring the satanic side of black metal, I finally got around to trying these guys and many other classics.  This album specifically was one of the 95/100's, when the other Sacramentum albums couldn't even keep up with it.  Ironically, I just heard both Dissections as well as the first two releases by a more recent band called Stormkeep, and both bands blow this beloved debut album out of the water.  From a genre perspective, it has more strengths than weaknesses.  The epic personality matches perfectly with its production technique.  Somewhat noisy yet still somehow clear, everything comes out beautifully.  A collective of fine melodies and riffs rules the album front to back, never once even allowing a dull moment to enter through the gates of the castle painted on the cover.  For a fan of the genre, this would be some good, easy fun, and because of its influence it remains a revered classic.  But the thing is, I can't revere it the way I used to back when I was still new to black metal.  I admit, this album's a good amount of fun, but I can't compare any one of these melodies, rhythms and riffs favorably to the things I heard in those two Dissection albums or those two Stormkeep albums.  It's like The Aaron Carter to Dissection's Nick Carter, except still listenable.  Either way, unlike the first two Dissection albums, this didn't age quite as well for me, now that we have so many emulators of the two at least being able to match and surpass this one when they usually can't do so with Dissection.  ANd strangely enough, now the other albums are closer to keeping up with this on in my honest opinion.

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