ANCIENT RITES - The Diabolic Serenades Digi-CD

"The Diabolic Serenades" is the band's most consistently sinister compared to later recordings. Although, I have to admit the production sounded funny to my ears when I first heard this with their precise drum sound and the digitalized recording quality for the type of extreme metal they were projecting. I can imagine it would have chimed a little better with an acoustic kit like they used on the demo and EP, and then, of course, helped out by the louder sound here. The band still makes up for it, as their subsequent material would record in an even more processed fashion but not hold up the musical end of the bargain for someone who got into them when they were stepping on more toes and sensibilities with their different take on extreme metal here. The band is cited as black metal, but this release actually combines attributes of black and death. They took a sidelined direction to sounding strictly like, say, American death metal a la Morbid Angel or Cannibal Corpse, or even the Norwegian route with Darkthrone or Burzum, as, of course, many would attempt to do so without the innovation aspect of things. Those of us who've had a run in with Ancient Rites might have different mind sets about them with the band shifting around their modes of playing on their varied albums, and I can imagine only a select few that are into the whole enchilada.