Bane

Although it's difficult to tell the difference between the "chaos" part of the record and the "darkness" and "emptiness" parts (its tracks are divided into three chapters), the excursions into unnecessary thematics and the dynamic shifts of Bane's debut full-length are, thankfully, trumped by its promising, more straightforward black/death cuts. Such is the case with "Awakening of the Evil Spirits" and "Dysthymia," whose keyboard orchestration flourishes would put the listener to sleep like a lacklustre night at the symphony. Those sins are happily forgiven when contrasted against the band's above average take on the Swedish sound ("Pandemonium" and "Abhorrence"), where the cold melodicism of Dissection's lead parts mix somewhat originally with more brutal death-like elements in the riff department. For their next release, this Serbian outfit would do well to note such points of uniqueness so that they can do more than pay tribute to an already well-documented sound.