CoC : Dawnbringer - Sacrament : Review

Dawnbringer - _Sacrament_
(Twilight, 1996)
by: Brian Meloon (7 out of 10)

An American band (I believe) that are playing a strange hybrid of a lot of styles. The vocals are what really stand out about this on first listen. They're both distorted and processed, and they sound like they're being sung from far away. They're a little hard to get used to at first, and aren't at all what you'd expect from hearing the music, but I actually like them. The music ranges from folksy acoustic to black metal to melodic death metal to straightforward rock. At times, they almost have a pop feel, with the lead guitar on the title track sounding like "Reptile" by the Church. Musically, they're not doing anything too new, as they don't mix the styles too much, instead opting for a more standard approach, but the arrangements of the parts are novel. For example, during the title track, while playing a black metal style, they stop, strum an acoustic guitar four times with long pauses in between, then kick right back into the mid- to fast-paced black metal style. It's strange, but I like it: it keeps the music from getting monotonous, the way a lot of (black metal) bands tend to do. The musicianship is somewhat inconsistent; most of the black metal sections sound good, but the bluesy guitar solos sound very cheap. It's only an EP, clocking it at around twenty minutes long, but it's a nice effort, and I'm curious to hear their next offering.

(article published 2/1/1997)

ALBUMS
3/16/2007	T DePalma	9	Dawnbringer - In Sickness and in Dreams
9/1/1998	R Kriste	8	Dawnbringer - Unbleed