| Thy Serpent 'Forests Of Witchery' Spinefarm , 1996 Lord Pale : Thy Serpent are a Finnish darkmetal band who play lengthy blackend hymns that can be at times a test to the listeners endurance . Fuzzy guitar work chews through long slow riffs with acoustic accompanyments and harsh blackmetal rasps with intermittent clean vocals that actually sound pretty good . Keyboards float along in the background spicing up the otherwise unconfrontational rhythms of the guitars and the drums just do basic beats that don't add much to the sound as a whole . The fastest song on here by a long way is 'Of Darkness And Light' ( sounding more like blackmetal ) one of the better shorter tracks herein and rocks along with decent rhythm with more creative drumming . There are some nice riffs across the album they are just over used and the songs are at times unnecessarily long . The bands lyrics are good in fairly competent English but I believe they were not written by the band themselves . Overall a fairly good album , but one requires the listeners attention , if you put it on as background music it will just wash over you and you will get nothing out of it . Favourite Tracks - Only Dust Moves , Of Darkness And Light , A Traveller Of Places Unknown mark - 6.5/10 Thy Serpent 'Lords Of Twilight' Spinefarm , 1997 Lord Pale : What we have here is a collection of rerecorded demo tracks done with a full line up remade at the time of the Forests Of Witchery recordings . The band have thrown a few extra synth tracks and embellishments into the material on this MCD but what we have here is a basic mix of synth blackmetal and the darkmetal that the band displayed on their debut . None of the clean vocals of Forests Of Witchery make it onto this release just rather bland music which is occasionally rocky and at times long and drawn out . A couple of tracks stand out but thats not hard amongst o collection of songs of this calibre like the faster 'Unknown' and a couple of the musicals make an impression on me , but for the mot part this is simply worth avoiding . Overall a rather unnecessary release . Favourite Tracks - Unknown , As Mist Descends From The Hills Mark - 5/10 Thy Serpent 'Christcrusher' Radiation , 1998 Lord Pale : Perfecting the good riffs of their debut and demo and putting them into shorter compositions with a better production and more variation Thy Serpent have come up with an album that actually makes a lasting impression . Acoustic passages and synth add to the rocky melodic rhythms of the guitars but the sound is still darkmetal and there are no happy moments to be heard . The clean vocals are much more prominent and the blackend vocals are much better and more varied this time around . The songs sit in a rough mid paced area grooving along at their own pace except for the brutal title track which blasts along in a venemous assault on christianity . The band have finally developed their unique riffs into a format from where they will be more accessable creating their own sound in the blackend realms of darkmetal . The lyrics have a more antichristian slant but still many tracks retain the original pagan themes of the debut with some classic lines like 'decorated with nails...' in the unholy 'Circle Of Pain' ( a track about Jesus ) . The nature theme still dominates their artwork this time in the form of a great cover pic of lightning striking . A worthy release and a huge improvement on their earlier works . Favourite Tracks - Thou Bade Nothingness , Circle Of Pain , Christcrusher Mark - 8/10 Thy Serpent 'Death' Spinefarm , 2000 Lord Pale : The new 4 track MCD by Thy Serpent sees the band utilising more of a deahmetal vocals delivery and a variety of different styles . The first track 'Deathbearer' sounds like a fairly straightforward progression from the Christcrusher material but that all changes when the second track 'Wounds Of Death' starts . Slightly reminscent of their earlier material with acoustic overlays and clean vocals , 'Wounds..' soon progresses into a far more melodic heavier track with sharper shorter deathy riffs showing a newer fresher sounding approach with great keyboards that follow the lead lines and a rocky ending . Third track 'Sleep In Oblivion' sounds like a cross between the Christcrusher material and Old Man's Child with a sharp heavy approach again with melodic overlays . The final track 'Parasites' is more reminscent of Opeth ( even the vocals ) with melodic overlays , a rocky backing rhythm , and a long accoustic introduction . Overall a slightly disjointed release that fails to make as much of an impression as Christcrusher , but fairly good all the same . Favourite Tracks - Wounds Of Death , Parasites Mark - 7/10 |
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