On Ghastly Shores Lays the Wreckage of Our Lore

With a title like On Ghastly Shores Lays the Wreckage of our Lore from a band called Old Corpse Road, you had to have an inkling that their music was going to be some kind of epic black metal and that's exactly what it is. This is their third album though I had never heard of them prior to it. There are some nice, atmospheric elements on this album, especially when the band uses a combination of vocal styles. The black and death vocals are the most distinctive with the clear voice, used mainly for spoken word passages, being a bit generic. When they crank up the speed then slow it down you start to get a sense of times long passed and echoes of events long forgotten. On the other hand, I found the keyboards to be a little canned and synthetic, their sound too up front and they effectively break the spell on several occasions (notably "Black Ship", "Sea Fire"). The album is also long, over 64 minutes, and it gets a bit crushed under its own weight by the end.

I didn't dislike On Ghastly Shores Lays the Wreckage of our Lore, but it didn't blow me away like other epic black metal has in the past. Aimed at Summoning, Finsterforst and Caladan Brood fans, Old Corpse Road is on the target but a long way from the bullseye.