Drowning the Light: From the Abyss (2015)

It has been two whole days since I reviewed a Drowning the Light album.  It is about damn time I dust off another one.  Tracing Drowning the Light's evolution is a bit of a tricky thing, mostly due to the massive amount of releases the band has put out.  That is fairly common for a band that is so prolific.  But at some point, the band ceased being a simplistic Burzum clone and that shines through on this release. 

Part of what makes this particular release stand out, particularly among the couple of Drowning the Light releases I have reviewed on this blog, is the fact that at this point the band is not a one-man project.  Azgorh brought on an individual named Balam who chips in songwriting and plays the guitars.  Balam is a more accomplished guitarist than Azgorh, which shows in the increased quality of the leads and riffs, and the songs themselves have evolved to be more complex.  This is evident from the very beginning with the incredible opening riff to "Drink the Blood of the Sun (Varcolaci Awakens)". 

The band continues to use keyboard melodies effectively.  Those melodies give the sound a sort of medieval flavor that has long been a staple and leads to comparisons to early Satyricon and Summoning.  With the cavernous, dungeon-esque atmosphere and the keyboard melodies it is easy to see why the band has been called "medieval black metal".

Drowning the Light has evolved by leaps and bounds on this release.  I suspect the reasoning for it is the personnel changes, suddenly it is no longer dictated by just one person.  But what has resulted is a massively improved sound, and this is coming from someone that actually likes their previous offerings.  This is easily one of the best Drowning the Light albums, and that is really saying something.