Carach Angren - Death Came Through a Phantom Ship (2010)^{Release ID: 10249}

Carach Angren deserve a pat on the back for effort here as they've clearly put a lot of time & effort into this album. "Death Came Through A Phantom Ship" is a concept album chock full of blasting symphonic black metal & theatrical interludes. The band's performance is very tight & all the instruments are well separated & audible although the mix could've been quite bit heavier because the guitars & drums sound a bit weak. All of the black metal vocals are intelligible & you can comfortably follow the storyline. This is probably a bit of a turn-off for me as I really don't get into the Cradle Of Filth style theatrics & the storyline seems like a bit of a wank to me. The roleplay tends to downplay the aggression of the riffs in my opinion. The music also follows the storyline to an extent & I would just prefer the band to write evil black metal (which they are quite clearly capable of) rather than the over-the-top symphonic theatrics. All of the tracks are pretty good but nothing really stands out & makes me gurn like a bitch. So yeah... nothing much to see here people.