Nyseius - Militiae (2010)^{Release ID: 11603}

French black metallers Nyseius show quite a bit of promise on this release but really fail to fully deliver due to a lack of originality. Considering the amount of experimentation I've heard out of the French black metal scene over the past decade or so it's surprising just how generic this EP(?) is. The first & last tracks are ambient mood pieces which are pretty effective but nothing to write home about. The other four tracks are strictly in the classic 1990s Norwegian black metal sound. There is a nice dark & aggressive atmosphere throughout but there's nothing you haven't heard many times before. The musicianship is OK without being anything special & the vocals are mixed in a way that they occasionally mask the guitars behind them. I'm not a huge fan of the drumming. I've always liked this style of black metal & therefore I don't mind this release but I can't see myself listening to it regularly as there is much better examples of this style of black metal.