Apostasy

Apostasy’s second album takes things up more or less where the first one left off, pursuing a course of Dimmu Borgir-ish symphonic black metal with a death metal counterpoint. Devilution does its job well enough but stops there. "Sulphur Injection” successfully blends soft female vocals into an otherwise caustic mix, "Supreme Architecture” has a growl-a-long kind of chorus, "SoulGrime” comes to a dramatic guitar/keyboard finale that leads into the harmonious battery opening the album’s last track — these are a few of the more memorable moments that offset some sound-alike stuff, but even combined they’re not enough to entirely redeem the whole.