With that said, Eyes of Noctum does have its onerous work cut out for it as a creative metal entity. Any band of unproven neophytes that flies off to record with the legendary Fredrik Nordstrom at the legendarier Studio Fredman, bags Hellhammer and Snowy Shaw as guest drummers and even clocks production time with Jack Fucking Douglas is bound to raise an eyebrow or two, even from less jaded folks like me. Critically and lamentably, it turns out to be precisely what I had envisioned when this was announced as a black metal project: symphonic, drum-triggered, keyboard-laden schmaltz long on the commercial aspirations and short on, well, let’s hold on... actually, it’s not terrible at all. This might reek to high hell with obvious Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir slavishness, but the songs themselves are a fairly successful and classy lot, with plenty of standout riffs and some pretty excellent clean vocals that bode well for future ventures outside the BM realm, should the band opt out of said genre-specific mimicry.

Really, what does this band in at the moment is less about opportunism and more about derivation. It’s nice to emulate your heroes and all, especially when you’re eighteen years old, but said heroes recorded In the Nightside Eclipse, The Somberlain, Dark Medieval Times and For All Tid at the same age, creating a musical blueprint that groups like Eyes of Noctum see fit merely to paraphrase and bowdlerize. Find your own voice, fellas.

written by Matthew Kirshner

Playing time: 45:54