SAMMATH NAUR

The music on three of the tracks on the EP is symphonic black metal with melodic death metal elements. The track "Pyrrhic Beat" is a short ambient synth track. The songwriting is intriguing but not exactly original. The lack of originality is compensated for with the strong musicianship and the well sounding production and overall "The Anhedony Domain" is a quality release by Sammath Naur. The omnipresence of orchestrated synths provide the band's sound with an epic quality, but the music is actually quite dynamic and there are more raw stripped down parts on the EP too. The vocals vary between raspy black metal type vocals and deeper death metal growling.

So despite the fact that Sammath Naur don't bring much new to the table, "The Anhedony Domain" is still a worthwhile release and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

The music on the album is black/death metal with both progressive and symphonic leanings. The music style is actually hard to pin down as Sammath Naur is quite the adventurous act. They include a lot of different genre elements in their music. The vocals are both growling and black metal raspy and the music can be both brutal and more sophisticated. Keyboards are prominant in the band´s sound but the music is only occasionally symphonic. The sound production is a bit murky and it´s especially hard to hear what´s going on during blast beat sections. There´s atmosphere here though and therefore the issue with the sound production isn´t a major one.

The band are really well playing in addition to writing some intriguing music so that´s also a positive and overall I´d say "Self-Proclaimed Existence" is a very promising debut album by Sammath Naur. There is room for improvement but the album is perfectly enjoyable as it is and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.