Makeshift Altars

Just in time for spooky season, Greek Lovecraftian lecturers weave a dreadful tale as old as time and space.     Brace yourselves for something absolutely shocking: everything on this record has been done before, much in the way that any chord progressions in modern pop music have already been done before. But the real important question is, have all these elements and influences been packaged together in this way before? I think not, and this is what sets Prometheus apart from their peers in both the death metal and black metal spheres. After all, who else is bridging this astronomical gap between the two genres with such panache?     When you take either Resonant Echoes From Cosmos of Old or Consumed in Flames (the group’s first outing) at even a casual listen, both the death and black metal influences are obvious: a helping of Nile, a dash of Emperor, two pinches of Immortal, and deglaze the pan with some Morbid Angel. But it’s how all these element...

  Ov Shadows fly in to deliver you a glacial slab of black metal all the way from Sweden, and boy are their arms tired...     ...not from flapping their would-be wings, of course, which I’m sure would be covered in tar-black feathers. Either that or something resembling a bat’s wings. Black Metal Animorphs, anyone? Just me? Okay... no, in all seriousness, where these black metal bands get the stamina to deliver these absolutely pelting sections of blastbeats and constant double-picked leads for at least 90 percent of a 45-minute album is beyond me. But Ov Shadows pull it off, and showcase a wealth of not only arm strength but songwriting competence as well.     Black metal can really start to sound a bit unimaginative after listening to artists try to pull off the same wintery sound over and over, with so many purposefully under-produced tracks you would think a business selling only $5 microphones would be trading on the New York Stock Exchange by now. So w...