Band:	Dantalion
Album:	All Roads Lead To Death
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	October 07, 2010
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Only Ashes Remain
02. Bleakness
03. Walking To Eternity
04. Claws Of Pestilence
05. My Last Breath
06. Thought Of Desolation
07. Scorn
08. Gloom And Failure

Spain's Dantalion return once again with their third full-length to date under the title All Roads Lead To Death. The cover artwork is quite awesome dare I say, holding a sense of imperial funeral or something, creating a very positive first impression to the eyes of the listener that has yet to cherish everything the band has to offer in terms of sound. And indeed, the first eye contact with the audience cannot lie, it utterly depicts the more oppressive side Dantalion have chosen on their latest attempt, a bleak aura is omnipresent through the aesthetics of desolate black metal, bearing something from bands like Forgotten Tomb, Burzum, Shining etc.

Everything you ask for is all around, an extreme edge of melancholy that tends to flow like tiny razors deep within your veins, harassing slowly but steadily the organic machinery that lets life blossom. The title holds massive amounts of truth concerning the sound of the band and so it is, a flowing river of massive energy expanding its territory as All Roads Lead To Death unleashes torrents of negativity as it washes up the deceased that couldn't survive its menace. No, it's not something you haven't heard before, the band doesn't possess the glory of innovation, but it does express a sense of grandeur through intense doleful vibes of extreme decomposing beauty. Tormented howls and outraging lamented screams entrance the atmosphere while the rhythm section presents everything it has to say in the most appropriate way and the guitars overwhelm the senses with their railway riffing, the groovier moments, the distorted melodies and inspired solos like the one on "Claws Of Pestilence". The main idea is uprising tempos of demented sorrow that is not afraid to present a more mid-tempo vibe or even slow down for a while, along with a production that compliments the work Dantalion so painfully managed to compose within 56 minutes of tormented malevolence and disharmonic eloquence.

All Roads Lead To Death is an opus to internal disharmony, its black & white aesthetic slowly turns to lifeless grey and apathy that offer their place wholeheartedly to scarlet embossed ornaments of dissonance.