Band:	Syn Ze Sase Tri
Album:	Sub Semnul Lupului
Style:	Symphonic black metal
Release date:	May 14, 2012
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Sorocul
02. Născut În Negură
03. Vatra Strămoşească
04. Legea Străbunilor
05. Sub Semnul Lupului
06. Sîmbăta Apelor
07. Nemuritor Şi Veşnic
08. Înţeleptul Întrupat
09. În Pîntecul Pămîntului
10. Pustnicul Munţilor
11. Înaripat Şi Împietrit
12. Venirea

If there was ever a piece of album art which reflected the content perfectly, it's Syn Ze Sase Tri's Sub Semnul Lupului. From a distant glance, it's really cool. Very epic, rich colours and lots of detail. After closer inspection, you start to see the poor computer generated graphics and the incongruous depth & lighting.

The content? If not paying close attention, it's a very cool meloblack album steeped in synthesizers, and it is...sort of. Unfortunately, On closer inspection however, the synths have this tendency to really cheapen the whole feel of the album. Would the band be much better off without them entirely? Definitely not. These synthesizers (and some folk type moments) are an integral part of the music, not just some gimmick-sauce to spice up an otherwise generic album. The even stranger thing is these synthesizers aren't even all that bad 100% of the time. In fact, the parts that are synthesized stringed-instruments and whatnot are actually pretty decent. It's the trumpets that really sound crappy, sort of bringing in mind Ex Deo's flimsy debut album Romulus. It really comes across as an act of sacrificing consistency for variation; good on them, but it really didn't work out.

Here's where things get conflicted; despite having a lot amateurish synth sounds, this is actually a really good album. The riffs, regardless of tempo, seem to always manage to be incredibly infectious, whether playing at a stomping march, or full-blown blast beat driven black metal. As stated before, they've managed to make all the whole synth/symphonic/folkish aspect of this album integral without making it a crutch. All this spells out is just great song writing, which is the most important part of it. Poor recording can usually be remedied by approaching things with the right mindset. Bad song writing is bad song writing, fortunately there isn't any of that going on here.

This a must listen for anyone who loves clean, epic black metal. Ignoring all the flaws in some of the chosen synth sounds, this really is a gem.