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For all the heady momentum on every one of these five solid tracks, there isn’t a single moment that you can’t predict long ahead of time. Every blackened death guitar lick resolves itself exactly as you expect it to. Every shrieked and screamed vocal has the sort of syncopation, cadence and pitch that you’ve heard since the high ‘90s or low ‘00s. The band is more than proficient, the mix is crisp and inviting, the guitar solos harmonize and wail in equal measure, but man, it’s impossible to fall out of my chair over something like this at this point. Sure, it’s arguable that God Dethroned, Naglfar and Arkhon Infaustus are spinning wheels to one degree or another these days, but they’ve also earned and engendered a lot of residual goodwill on my part, and it’s going to take a lot more than skillful mimicry from Portugal to supplant any of those genre heavyweights. Still, as far as genre-cloggers go, these guys can put out some catchy, deft songs. Add five more that are good or better and we’ve got a modest success on our hands.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Lidless |
| 2. Dies Irae |
| 3. Hectic Red |
| 4. Mind Pattern |
| 5. The Scarlet Winter |
: 26:17
| Buy other Anifernyen albums |
