Magister Dixit

Quebec’s Magister Dixit are clawing and crawling into a shaky middle ground between raw necro black and a more melodic polished sound. They have managed to create a very cool album that you can actually listen to more than once to explore the songs involved. Still trying to sound like tortured elves, the singing is just embarrassing (it doesn’t seem to work for any black metal), though some of the other vocal stylings here make up for it. The cold production wheeling and dealing gives some really alienating feelings the listener will experience while trying to grab on to the sounds at hand. The drums sound a bit too blocky, but the guitar sound is prime for this kind of thing. The riffs meld into each other and essentially create one big blur, with moments of melody found within for those willing to take the plunge. As far as this side of metal goes, Magister Dixit seem to be a good compromise for those who find the raw too alienating and the orchestrated too goofy.