http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=75537#35007
Good Experimental Black Metal - 86%
Written by BassLord on January 7th, 2007
On "The Arising Dungeon Cult", the first full length album by New Hampshire black metal stallwarts, the duo of Frost Heathen and Gemini take an open minded and experimental approach to black metal that is very refreshing. Contained here in are five distintcly different songs, each radically different than the last, and all good.
Every song on this album is an entity all its own, as none of the songs are quite the same style. "A Past Forgotten", the album's lenghty opening track, contains an almost never ending supply of epic riffs, ominous keyboards, melodic interludes, and tortured, low(for black metal) vocals. This song even utilizes some chanty, singing vocals, which add to the song's mystery. "Aphillionistic Pansophism", is more of a traditional black metal song, with it's driving, evil riffs, and higher pitched screams. "Demonic Entrapment" is more of an old school BM song, with some thrashy styled riffing and growly vocals. "...And Death", is a very slow, doomy almost Burzum sounding song, with very disonant riffs, but the use of entirely whispered vocals does become irritating after a while. The album closes with the extra long "Spectramancy", which is an entirely keyboard based song, complete with spacey ambient music, and throbbing techno sections.
The production on this album is a litle raw, but still clear enough to decipher every instrument and not too harsh sounding. This album is certainly worth checking out, especially for the amazing "A Past Forgotten". Its nice to see a black metal band that is not afraid to experiment with different styles, as sometimes black metal can become stale with it's self imposed limitations on what is "troo" and "Kvlt". But Cold Northern Vengeance certainly does not fall into the realm of narrow minded.
