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This is a hard piece of music to review, not because it isn’t any good, on the contrary. It just took me a while to get into the concept and write something down which would be sufficient enough. This work of art by the Portuguese band The Firstborn is as extraordinary as it’s original. On ‘The Unclenching Of Fists’ you won’t just hear great black / death metal tunes but this in combination with Far Eastern instrumental harmonies and vocal work. The third full-length album of this band is a concept album about the wonders of Tantric Buddhism which is based on the Tibetan ‘Book of the Dead’. A very ambitious project which took 4 years of writing plus an extra year of recording but the result is more than worthwhile. After many enjoyable listening sessions, the one instrument that stood out the most in my opinion was the Sitar. It is used quite frequently on the album and it was recorded live, while many other samples like a beautiful Flute and lots of percussion sounds were also used.
Also the artwork design and illustration go hand in hand with the music and the concept as a whole. Besides the Oriental instruments and vocal singing samples, the music is still mainly in the vein of Norwegian styled black metal. Actually there is one main influence whose presence I sense on this record which is that of the band Emperor. They are merely an inspiration though rather than an adoption with further adaptation of the musical style, but it works amazingly well. Clear examples of this can be found in the songs: ‘Path of the Mindwalker’, ‘Voyage’ and ‘Fire Channels’. Singer Bruno Fernandes has such a wide vocal capacity that comes near that of the Nordic style of Ihsahn and speaking of. Now since the mighty Emperor has risen again from the dead I would strongly wish that they will do an extensive tour with maybe The Firstborn as support. One can only hope but nonetheless this band is one of many new great discoveries I’ve come across this year.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Torn From Within (Awakening) |
| 2. To Roam The Endless Plains |
| 3. Perception |
| 4. Path Of The Mindwalker |
| 5. Voyage |
| 6. Fire Channels |
| 7. Movement For Practising The Way |
| 8. The Roaring Voice Of The God Of Death |
| 9. Of Time And Its Absence |
| 10. Ten Offerings To Mahâkâla |
| 11. Golden Libation |
| 12. Absolute |
| 13. The Unclenching Of Fists |
: 59.58
| Buy other Firstborn, The albums |
