Advent Parallax is the fourth studio album from this black metal act, and the first positive thing you will point out about it will easily be the production quality. The vocals are crisp with a very slight echo, the drum work sounds phenomenal, and the traditional, as well as not-so-traditional, guitar work doesn't sound so blended together as far as the riffs go.

But, sadly, the album suffers from the same copy cat elements that the black metal movement seems to be so fond of, which include an echo effect on the vocals, and many guitar riffs that just happen to sound like songs you've heard before, even recycled riffs from the last song. The band does try to stand out a bit in some of their songs, though some of these moments are short lived. "Descension" has some nice riff work here and there (mostly at the end), and "Seance In A Warrior's Memory" and "A Shower Of Idols" have a few odd moments that seem out of place and get rather boring after the first four to five minutes.

True there are a few good songs on here, but a few is exactly it. "Serpent Recoil" and "Refractions Of An Unexploded Singularity" are the stand out tracks that won't make you sit there going "This bores me, I've heard it all before!" "Descension" and "Cognition Of Rebirth" won't make you drowsy, but definitely won't make you mosh wherever you happen to listening to it. This is definitely an album for the die hard black metal fans who cannot get enough of the style. As for the rest of the general metal population, it has it's moments, but not enough worth justifying full price for the release.

written by Jason Thomas Weiss

Playing time: 57.00