Sounds from a Dying World

I didn't much care for Claymorean's last album, Unbroken, but I'm finding 2017's Sounds from a Dying World a much more focused effort from this Serbian band. The songwriting has been stripped down to guitars/drums/vocals with only a few keyboard/sound effect flourishes. Singer Dejana Betsa Gar?evi? gets into her performance and really wails on tracks like "Old Mountain" and "Blood-Red Shield." The music is less Power and more Traditional metal with the bulk of the tempos in the mid-paced range. Lyrical inspiration is drawn from authors like Howard ("Cimmeria"), Moorcock ("Rage of the White Wolf") and Lovecraft ("Blackest Void") and Claymorean give them appropriate gravitas with their compositions. My favorite track is "Blood-Red Shield", an ode to Norse shield maidens. The way the riffs pound like drums and Gar?evi? pours her heart into the chorus takes me to a time long past. There is a cover of Cloven Hoof's "Astral Rider" to close out the album and it works better than the Manilla Road cover on the last album. If albums like The Curse of the Crystal Viper get your fist in the air, then Sounds from a Dying World is sure to do the same.