Dagorath - Evil Is the Spirit

DAGORATH - Evil Is the Spirit (UNDER THE SIGN OF GARAZEL - CD 2018)

Previous Dagorath album "Glare of the Morning Star" was pretty good, but to be honest, it didn't keep my attention for too long. But their newest recording, which is "Evil Is the Spirit" EP, certainly will stay in my stereo for longer and I'm sure that I will be coming back to it more often. Damn, this stuff is excellent! Dagorath surprised me very positively, I didn't expect to hear such a good material from them. But here it is and I strongly advise you to give it a chance. If you're black metal fan, do so immediately. You will be impressed. 

Dagorath plays killer traditional black metal, which easily creates the cold, grim feeling and blood-freezing malicious aura. But the quality and variety of their music is simply impressive. Songwriting is top notch and the whole spectrum of different kind of riffs that were used for these songs guarantee that there's not even a single minute of boredom. I love how they combine intense, aggressive and often fast black metal – which obviously sounds very harsh and vicious – with a strong, sometimes almost dominating melodic line. But don't think that these melodies are here to make the music sound polite. Nope! It's similar type of melodic riffs, which you could find on such classic records as "Antichrist" from the old days and in Mgła or Cultes des Ghoules, from newer bands. Sulphurous, harsh and obscure, yet mesmerizing and really memorable – this music is simply fantastic and I have total support for Dagorath for this EP. Sometimes their ideas go a little away from the usual black metal patterns, especially in the beginning of "Przedświt", but that only increase my interest. I like how they take time to build the tension and atmosphere in this song. Howling, ferocious vocals and raw, organic production are also strong aspects of this EP. 

Even though "Evil Is the Spirit" is considered as an EP, it is 40 minutes long, which is enough for a full length album. There are only five songs on it, so you can see that all these songs are pretty long and extensive. It's always difficult to have an eight minutes long song interesting from start to the very end. Well, Dagorath doesn't really do much, their ideas are nothing extraordinary and they never use extras like keyboards or acoustics to broaden their sound. But this is where a good and memorable melody or riff helps. If it's good, it can be played for couple of minutes and it never gets boring. So, you can say that their music is simple, but effective. And most importantly, the eerie, cold atmosphere is exactly as I like to hear from such music. 

Oh, let me also say that their cover of "Veadtuck" is just killer. Way better than Urgehal's and I like it even more than the original (but I've never been big fan of Von). This song, on this EP, sounds great and I like it a lot. Well fuckin done! 

Standout tracks: "Przedświt" 

Verdict: 90/100