Band:	Ephel Duath
Album:	Hemmed By Light, Shaped By Darkness
Style:	Avantgarde metal
Release date:	November 2013

01. Feathers Under My Skin
02. Tracing The Path Of Blood
03. When Mind Escapes Flesh
04. Within This Soil
05. Those Gates To Nothing
06. Through Flames I Shield
07. Hemmed By Light
08. Shaped By Darkness

What Ephel Duath gave us here is a collection of sort of bizarre riffs and sort of bizarre time-signaturing and sort of bizarre vocals that seem like they were tossed together more for the sake of seeming bizarre than for the sake of making good music.

That's the impression I'm getting. I don't listen to much prog and psychedelic stuff, and these guys seem to be wading in proggy and psychedelic(ish) territory on this, but I doubt that anyone who likes said types of music will find much to enjoy on this anyway.

Songs all start out in a promising enough way here (either weirdly or in a catchy way), but they never seem to go anywhere. It feels like these guys were trying too hard to come off as ahead of the curve, putting the pursuit for solid tuneage to the back. There's a dishonest feel to the album as a whole, and that's the sort of thing that even a handful of good songs can't fully redeem.

And there really aren't a handful of good songs on this.

And even if there were more technical prowess (and there is some) from the guitarists, it wouldn't change the fact that the whole album is caked in vocals that sound more suiting for a roll call during an after school meeting of hot topicked satanists under the bleachers.

They seem to have been going for a bright, black metallic sort of sheen (maybe a Nachtmystium-y sheen), but what they ended up with and what we ended up with is some small piles of promising tidbits, then large heaps of motionless (and emotionless) moments that lack any kind of fire to keep things moving and interesting.

It's just not a good album.