Allfader

It’s never nice to judge an album by its cover, but the depiction of a hip young couple embracing before they blow each other’s brains out is something that seems saved for some of the more popular emo bands out there. Fortunately, Allfader are a band from the northern regions of Norway, so you can pretty much guess that the album’s content is going to be something that’s far outside the popular rock lexicon. These relatively new artists have some serious groove going on, but nothing beyond that is extremely enticing. Allfader aren’t really much more than a paint-by-numbers blackened death metal band. Although this debut album is actually quite well-produced, the clean black metal vocal parts of lead singer John Erik Andersen could use a touch of Ihsahn — or talent, in so many words. If you’re looking for quality black/death sounding stuff, listen to the two most recent Behemoth albums. Hopefully Allfader will decide to mix it up in the future, and maybe choose a more metal-looking layout for their CD. Grim reapers, burning churches, Gustave Doré paintings, Travis Smith’s designs — all of these things will be properly representative of metal for all eternity; it’d be nice to see them a little more prevalent!