Lord of Pagathorn - Daimono Philia

Ever since i heard their 7" "Shine Through My Scars, Morning Star!" my interest has been activated for this Finnish traditional black metal band, they originally started and released 2 demos back in 1993/94 to then go silent to later pop up again in 2010 with the "Msilihporcen" Ep/demo. After this comeback they have stayed above the surface and kept a string of releases coming out and this is their second full album.

The first album was a solid debut album & also a very strong conceptual one ...soo how holds this second opus up? Well first few times i listened to it i was not getting any hot vibes from it and felt it was a bit boring and loose around its edges...it felt more like a random regular black metal album that was not bad nor good and i was missing the weight of the goat the weight of "Pagathorn"!! ...Luckily i did not write this review at that stage because now after 5-6 spinns more i have reevaluated it!

Yes this album needed some extra spins for me to open up show its treasures, so while i still feel it is missing some of its meaty personality as the first album and demos had there are some good songs to be heard here as the grand " Rise of the Celestial  Scythe"(probably the best track) or the heavy final track "Throne of Lucifer" or the melodic but evil "Ghosts Among Us".

If this was an album from a new entity i probably would have been more positive but as this is quite far into this bands history i cant say its their best release but saying that i cant say its a crap album as it is a good delivery of satanic music (also production is clean but punchy, guitars,drums and the nice raspy vocals is in great balance) just not as complete as a release as before.
Fans of the band shall of course pick it up as it is worth hearing.

professionally made record but uneven in songwritting i feel this is an album between albums.

Released by: Woodcut Records
Link:
http://www.woodcutrecords.com/main.html

Tracklist:

1.     Intro: Nietzscherion        
2.     Evil to Destroy Evil        
3.     Ghosts Among Us        
4.     Prayer of Desecration        
5.     Rise of the Celestial  Scythe       
6.     Builders of the Higher Places        
7.     The Spirit of Perversion        
8.     Spiritual Spiral Stairs        
9.     Throne of Lucifer