The Pitch: North Carolina symphonic death metal band Rapheumet's Well effectively showcase their greatest strengths with this new compilation via Test Your Metal Records. FFO: Dimmu Borgir, SepticFlesh, Carach Angren
What I Like: I almost never cover compilations, but with this one I was willing to make the exception. The reasoning for this is simple really. I have been a champion of Rapheumet's Well for a few years now, and this collection manages to overcome their one greatest weakness: inconsistency. The band has tracks like "Crucible of Titans" that perfectly rekindle the same feelings I had listening to Spiritual Black Dimensions back in the day...but also plenty of others that have me checking my watch. This is especially true of the most recent album, unfortunately. By weeding out the latter and condensing only their best material into a solid 50 or so minute runtime, I feel we have gotten the best representation of what Rapheumet's Well is capable of. It's also a nice exercise in why I prefer bands to take a few years between albums: it generally takes that long to really get your ducks in a row.
Critiques: Alright, RW... now your next task is to make sure your next full album has this kind of uniform quality.
The Verdict: If you like bombastic progressive and symphonic death metal in the vein of the bands above, The Elder's Anthology is pretty much a sure thing. The interplay of the haunting female cleans with the aggressive death growls alongside truly epic instrumentation can be quite breathtaking. Whether you are new to the band or have been on the fence like myself, this is the time to strike.
Flight's Fav's: Crucible of Titans, Resurrecting The Blood Gate, The Betrayer
- Review by FlightOfIcarus
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