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‘Sirens’ is the fourth album from Greek black metallers Astarte, but their first on Italian label Avantgarde. There is a significant shift in Astarte’s sound, as the more bombastic keyboards that were found on their previous works are mostly abandoned, in favour of a more restrained, more accessible approach. Mind you, it’s still heavy; Tristessa’s vocals are just as evil as ever, and session drummer Ivar adds a hefty kick to proceedings, but this is more straight-forward than Astarte have been traditionally.
The album opens with one of the better tracks, the Satyricon-esque ‘Dark-Infected Circles (OutbreaK)’ and remains strong through ‘Black Mighty Gods’ and the beautiful instrumental given the band’s former name, ‘Lloth’. On this track, keyboard player Katharsis and Tristessa (on an acoustic guitar) shine. ‘Bitterness Of Mortality’ is based primarily around a catchy, yet haunting riff, but the album hits it’s first rough waters with the straight-forward and relatively dull ‘Deviate’. It sounds almost like this album’s ‘Fuel for Hatred’, and like that song, is the weakest track on its album, and seems slightly out of place with the rest of the corresponding release. Astarte are much stronger when they allow their more progressive elements take hold.
The album comes back to life with ‘The Ring (OF SorroW)’ which features a guest vocal appearance from Dimmu Borgir vocalist, Shagrath. Unfortunately it falls into the same trap of most songs with guest appearances in that it’s a fun rush, but it feels less than essential to the ultimate goal of the album.
Despite some truly inspired moments and an abundance of strong melodies, ‘Sirens’ only occasionally threatens true excellence, but it is still a worthwhile album for fans of melodic black metal to explore.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Dark Infected Circles (OutbreaK) |
| 2. Black Mighty Gods |
| 3. Lloth |
| 4. Bitterness of Mortality (MecomaN) |
| 5. Deviate |
| 6. Oceanus Procellarum (Liquid Tomb) |
| 7. The Ring (Of SorroW) |
| 8. Twist, Nail, Torture |
| 9. Sirens |
| 10. Underwater Persephone |
: 45.37
| Buy other Astarte albums |
