Review by Faithless on February 20, 2020.

When there is no more room in the depths of hell, Azanigin walks the earth! What a hell of an album we have here folks, really impressive, relentless and menacing band from the US. Rise Of The Adversary was released last year in an independent effort to revive the North American black metal scene. Bands like Judas Iscariot (showcasing a more European approach to black metal), Inquisition, Von and Profanatica were pioneers in the US black metal scene but seemed to dim with the years and even disappeared from the radar. But a new breed of demonic creatures from the underground are claiming their throne and Azanigin is one of them.

Hellfire worshipers and necromancers can rejoice with this record. The hellish atmosphere is backed up with relentless hammers behind the kit, constant attack of the guitars and infernal shrieks that resemble a cat being strangled (and I mean it in a good way). The production that Azanigin presents here is very archaic yet understandable one; it is not caveman black metal (no, it is not a Transylvanian Hunger clone) but still you can enjoy a profound nihilistic and misanthropic feeling in some guitar passages. Almost as if it is existentially introspective, giving you hypnotic, melancholic and dark melodic moments followed by blast beats that will rip your head off. You can evidence the previous description in songs like ‘Life of Eternal Pain’, ‘Our Final Moments’ and ‘Aeonic Transmissions’.
I think that the Rise Of The Adversary is a way to avoid saying “the rise of Satan”. It is a wise move to focus on a more necromantic/occult approach rather than going for the obvious clichés that most black metal bands adore. Refreshing the flame of black metal seemed to be one of the goals of Azanigin without falling into plagiarism and with a more original/trademark sound. For instance, tracks like ‘Agia H Azanigin’ and ‘Esoteric Implantations’ demonstrate a clear intention to create their own stuff yet taking influences from here and there. In other words, this band sounds authentic in concept and execution wise, you really feel the anger and wrath in each track.

Overproduced bands that only want to be a copycat of glorious legends are on their way to extinction. Underground acts like Azanigin are rising from the depths to claim their own spot in the scene with hard work and authenticity. Most of the record Rise Of The Adversary is riff oriented and driven by mixed feelings like melancholy, introspection, wrath, anger and misanthropy in a way that you drown in a sea of blasphemous brutality. The raw production also works in favor of the band’s musicianship and concept. I hope to hear a second full length in the future from Azanigin. Final words, go and support the underground!

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Emma on September 11, 2009.

Dark, epic, gothic, wandering, harmonious disharmony with a hopeful underside. In a nutshell, that is "Dark Chamber Litanies", the latest from the Melodic-Death Spaniards Dawn Of Tears. This is a relatively new band; "Dark Chamber Litanies" is the third release from Dawn Of Tears, following up their first full length "Descent" debuting in 2007.

This is good stuff for Melodic Death fans, the entire album is easy to ‘digest’ and listener friendly without shutting the doors to the dark fantasy realm they’ve created. I can only compare the experience of this EP to an action flick. It’s that turning point about 90 minutes in when the protagonist accepts his path to destroy evil and so preps for confrontation. Following is the final battle itself, and though it is a tense 20 minutes the protagonist and audience know they will win in the end thanks to the mood established by the soundtrack; hence the underlying hopeful quality of the EP I have already mentioned. Keyboards play an important role in all of the tracks, too much so for some tastes, but it is essential to the overall mood of the album. Of course, every instrument used in the band has its own important role but in the case of "Dark Chamber Litanies" the keyboards are depended on to distinguish this EP from so many others. There are many a catchy riff spread throughout all five tracks and there is definitely an audience for the combo of the clean and dirty vocal layering.

You may have noticed in the nutshell overview that ‘wandering’ was one of several choice words. This is because the song structure for the most part was not as tight as it could have been. I had difficulty keeping track of where songs began and ended and I did not get the impression that that was intentional. Dawn Of Tears has a lot of good ideas but the EP simply doesn’t offer enough breathing space for all of them to reach their potential. The shortage in editing seems to be a common problem in many bands today. This overcompensation leads to overwhelmed listeners who return to the metal classics that keep it straightforward.

There’s a lot of good stuff going on for Dawn Of Tears, I would call "Dark Chamber Litanies" a solid release if it were not for its wandering nature at times. Aside from that, I do believe many fans of Gothic and Melodic Death alike will find this a nice addition to their collection.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9.5
Atmosphere: 8
Production: 8.5
Originality: 5
Overall: 8

Rating: 7.8 out of 10