I can’t say I had super high hopes for the debut CD from Serbia’s Bane; nondescript moniker, clichéd logo, artwork and album title, etc. But when I dove into the album I was actually greeted with some very competent and confident melodic black/death metal.

There’s nothing original to be seen here at all here. Solid mix of tangible Dissection/Dimmu Borgir/Naglfar/Dark Funeral worship with some deeper death metal vocals, some synths, and some well done, melodic but slicing riffs. All rendered with a nice polished production and just enough atmospherics and blazing riffs to keep me interested throughout. Albeit, I’m not blown away. Divided into three chapters (Chaos, Darkness & Emptiness — duh!), the nine songs (plus a cover of Dark Funeral‘s “The Dawn No More Rises” for this US release) comprise 38-minutes of well done music that comes across as purely Scandinavian — not Serbian.

Requisite atmospheric opener “The Awakening of the Evil Spirits” is your typical black/death keyboard intro  before “The True Insomnia” delivers some fairly standard black death blasts and growls. Nothing spectacular or attention grabbing. The third track, “Pandemonium”, is where Bane start to really pick things up with a really nice melodic blast and closing militant march that their Scandinavian peers would appreciate. “Lost Shadows” is an acoustic interlude, which should really cement how unoriginal these guys are. However, when the band deliver the vehement competence of “Abhorrence”, epic (read: long song with an acoustic mid-section) “Plague Upon Yourself” and terse melodic assault of “Inherited Infection”, it’s hard not to nod your head and think, “Hmmmm, not too shabby…” to yourself. “The Haunting Presence” is a slower somber track, showing that the band can step outside their box, but only barely as the closing atmospheric instrumental, “Dysthymia”, shows.

These guys know their niche and influences and wear them openly. There’s not an original note on the album, but each note is in fact pretty enjoyable and worth a look for fans interested in a solid take on a pretty same-y genre.

[Visit the band's website]

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