EVER-ARCH-I-TECH-TURE

Well first of all, Ever-Arch-][-Tech-Ture is actually progressive symphonic black death metal, so not everyone will like this. Okay, let's start with the 1st song, "Incognation" starts good, but after a minute it becomes harder, with progressive/symphonic sounds, you have to like death metal to like this song, not the best one on the album. The 2nd song, "Demons Shelter Within" is better then the first one, it's a little bit more progressive but still very metal like also a great piano tune at the 3 minute point. The 3rd song, "Ashes To Flesh" is one of the best songs on the album imo, perfect combination between progressive/symphonic and death metal. There is also some great singing in this song. I think most of you will like this song. The 4th song, "A Nation In Atrophy" is again a lot harder, with some good parts, but this one is almost completely Death Metal, not that good. The 5th song, "The Midnight Grotesque" starts with a piano, and then some guitars with some background singing like this "ahahahahahah" or something like that :), pretty hard song, but a good one, the background singing makes it good. The 6th song, "Prophet Set To Witness" is again a death metal song. The 7th song, "Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture" is a great song, with a lot of symphonic sounds. The 8th song, "Threnody For An Endling" is written by Daniel Gildenlöw from PAIN OF SALVATION, he is also the vocals on this song, good song. The 9th song, "Ravager 1.6.6.3." is again purely death metal, with some nice keyboard sounds. The 10th song, "Of Genesis And Apocalypse" is the longest song on the album, 8 minutes, and it's a great mix of death metal with progressive and symphonic sounds. The 11th song, "Forboding" is a short song, but a very good one, very progressive and nice to hear. The 12th song, "Shackles Cross" isn't that good, very hard, not progressive at all. The 13th song, "The Omniscient" is the best song on the album, especially the part where he is singing "save me, I'm falling" this song you all need to have.

I'll give this album a 7.5/10 because I can listen to death metal too. It's a good album, but definitely not essential.

Best songs on the album: The Omniscient, Ashes To Flesh, Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture, Threnody For An Endling and Forboding

"Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Belgian black metal act Axamenta. The album was released through Shiver Records in May 2006. "Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture" is a concept album divided into three chapters. In addition to the lyrics the booklet features newspaper articles and notes from the protagonists, which along with the lyrics explain the full story. It's a rather ambitious project but it's beautifully done and works really well.

Stylistically the music on "Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture" is a mix of symphonic black metal in the vein of Cradle of Filth and especially Dimmu Borgir (with a slight nod towards Emperor too) and melodic death metal. The tracks are relatively complex and the atmosphere busy and epic, which provide the album with a progressive edge too. The fact that Daniel Gildenl'w from Pain Of Salvation guests with some clean vocals on the ballad type track "Threnody for an Endling" only strengthens the progressive link. This is not more progressive in nature than acts like Dimmu Borgir and Emperor are at their most challenging though, so this is first and foremost symphonic black metal. The vocals predominantly vary between snarling high pitched black metal type rasps and deeper death metal growling, but as mentioned above there are moments featuring clean vocals on the album too.

It's music drenched in synths/keyboards/piano and because of it the soundscape is rather busy at times. The band make it work well though and there is a good coherence between the more "regular" metal instruments, the vocals and the synths/keyboards/piano. This is in large part due to the detailed and powerful sounding production, that helps to bring the best out in the music. The fact that these guys are skilled musicians and songwriters are not exactly issues either.

"Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture" is a high quality symphonic black metal album and to be honest that's actually quite a surprise keeping in mind the rather questionable quality of their previous output. This one reeks class and determination though and upon conclusion it's a very impressive release by Axamenta. High level musicianship, a professional, powerful, and detailed sound production, and intriguing songwriting to boot. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.