Band:	The Firstborn
Album:	Lions Among Men
Style:	Progressive black metal, Death metal
Release date:	March 05, 2012
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Lions Among Men
02. Without As Within
03. Wantless ...
04. Vajra Eyes
05. Eight Flashing Lances
06. Nothing Attained, Nothing Spoken
07. Sounds Liberated As Mantra

There's something incredibly respectable about a band who can cover so much ground like The Firstborn, yet bring it together in such a homogenous way. Lions Among Men is another one of those albums that seems like there's a little something for everyone.

So at the core, we have some progressive melodeath. Take some proggy sweeping atmospheres found in the likes of some older Opeth albums, then beef it up with some middle eastern drenched sounds a la modern Rotting Christ. Maybe throw in some Heavenwood in there as well. I have no idea what this band has to do with Heavenwood, but it seems like they would appeal to similar tastes. Lions Among Men is just a well thought-out album when it comes to placement of these various sounds; everything is mixed astonishingly well, these musicians definitely have a great intuition on what to bring to the forefront and when. Perhaps a more pretentious man than myself would go as far as calling this "a rich tapestry".

The only problem with this is the somewhat lazy feeling it gives off by the end. The pace is just so monotonously middle-ranged. It never drops to any sort of atmospheric plodding, it never hits any top speed material, and rarely uses this mid-tempo to offer any really pounding sort of moments. Monotony in the tempo may seem a bit too critical, but when you hear how this band has a good ear for interesting rhythms, you'll see why it's a shame they didn't utilize that a bit more to create a little more variation over all.

If you like prog, melodeath, or any type of metal that can tastefully bring in some traditional instruments, then Lions Among Men might just be what you're looking for.