The Royal Arch Blaspheme

This is yet another project involving N Imperial, the USBM gadfly associated with a ton of acts like Krieg, Judas Iscariot, Nachtmystium, NIL, and Twilight. Joined by John Gelso of Profanatica they call themselves The Royal Arch Blaspheme – a grandiose name for an act with grandiose ambitions it can't quite manage to pull off.

This is actually very stripped-down BM, with a simple riff approach and terribly boring 4/4 drums. There is no dynamic to these songs, and they pretty much just hammer down the same riff for the whole length of the track. The guitar sound is really a waste – a flat, muted tone with no presence or character that serves as just backup to what this band obviously feels are the most important feature of their music: Imperial's vocals. The vocals are mixed loud and filtered through a lot of effects, so they present an overpowering croak that drowns out a lot of the rest of the music. Again the recording is flat, so while present, the vocals have little character or vibrancy.

I was expecting something great from this, but it is really just a notch above tolerable. Despite a big name and a lot of big ideas, the music on this is oddly small.