Cult of the Serpent Sun

I rather liked Nite's previous outing, Voices of the Kronian Moon, with its very melodic and surprisingly catchy take on blackened heavy metal. Cult of the Serpent Sun continues in the same vein. As on Voices..., Nite basically sounds like the spawn of Abbath's I and Tribulation, with hooky old-school heavy metal as its base, and the throaty rasp of Van Labrakis at the helm. This is a guitar-driven album, with subtle nods to the Swedish revivalist scene, and bands like Sumerlands. In addition to writing pretty damn cool riffs, the guitar solos are tasty and crisp, never really going off the rails, but doing enough to grab your attention. The songs vary in tempo, with upbeat bangers such as "Skull," and mid-paced "The Last Blade" and downright mellow, horror-tinged cuts like "The Mystic" and "Tarmut." While not blowing anything or anyone out of the water, this feels more pretty much on par with their previous effort, and they again succeed surprisingly well in combining the edge of heavy metal with the general unease affiliated with the darker corners of the genre.