Review by Adam M on January 13, 2012.

This album has a great Symphonic Black Metal flavour that is blended with some Japanese sounding elements to craft a relatively original piece of music. There are disparate parts of the music that recall other bands, but as a whole, this is a unique entity. The vocals, for example, are heavily reminiscent of Angela Gossow with their venomous rasp and the symphonic elements recall the likes of Emperor or recent Septic Flesh, but as a whole it sounds like almost nothing else.

The blend of oriental sounds adds a unique flavour to the music, but don’t think this is an oriental sounding album in the entirety because it’s not. Rather, the music here is ferocious and fast. The songs add in subtle atmospheric nuances, but for the most part keep up a quick pace well. On the whole, the album maintains momentum and has plenty of excitement to found throughout. However, it doesn’t throw in enough interesting twists and turns and thus becomes somewhat redundant sounding at times. The point of the album is not to be innovative, but rather to be enjoyable and that is accomplished very well.

"Takasago Army" is a release that is such a fun listen that you’ll be playing it many times over.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8.5
Atmosphere: 8.5
Production: 8
Originality: 7
Overall: 8

Rating: 8 out of 10