Vehemency It is easy to notice how much Drowning the Light has developed throughout the last few years. Lately I've been listening to their (or back then, his) 2007 albums, those scruffy sounds and cheap drum machines of e.g. A World Long Dead and To the End of Time, and when compared to such late efforts as their brand new Ocean of Eternity, the difference in quality is tangible. While the embryonic material has its own charm, the 2011 version of the band is heaps better when it comes to the compositions.

The sound is, however, still really lo-fi, the guitars and steady blast beats like a distant waterfall, so Drowning the Light hasn't really done any compromises; in fact, the production is more lo-fi than on An Alignment of Dead Stars. Oceans of Eternity continues in the vein of the latest full-lengths, this particular style in which they embarked on on The Blood of the Ancients two years back: largely melancholic and epic, at times almost melodramatic, underground black metal that momentarily gets into harsher, menacing sections. On this newest effort, things start familiarly with ”As the Shadows at Dusk Reach Our Enemies Throat” and its tremolo laden epic guitars as well as choral synths. The following title-track includes the first properly aggressive riffs but only for a while, and then ”The Cataclysmic Cycle of Renewal” and ”Oppression & Tyranny” get the mood back to the melodic, familiar soundscape. The latter is a particularly depressive and rather slow-paced piece.

Just when things could easily turn into dullness due to the repetitive nature of the songs, ”The Key Still Not Found” brings something new to the table. It is comparably a more haunting piece, and especially so when the ending part kicks in with its Atra and Ill Omen esque graveyard atmospheres: rotting, ghastly black metal! This highlight of the album does not lose at all to ”The Lunatic Tide” that also incorporates a tad deviant riffing from the usual Drowning the Light scheme. ”Drifting Away in a Sea of Sorrow (Part II)”, a peaceful interlude pays homage to its first part from An Alignment of Dead Stars and serves as a welcome breathing moment until the last black metal pieces of the album, ”The Poison Kiss” and ”The Runes Are Thrown & the Bones Are Spread (A Hymn to the Apocalypse)” start, these two ending the album in similar compositional style as the journey began: climatic choral synths atop the ringing, beautiful melodies and Azgorh's trademark rasps.

In all aspects, Oceans of Eternity is your very traditional Drowning the Light album, but heck, I can not deny the power of these riffs this time. There's been plenty of fillers on previous efforts, but this album seems like a really concise whole of thoughtfully chosen material. I find the album to be quite a perfect example of well-done underground black metal, a fist to those faces who claim that black metal requires something essentially new and refreshing to be good.

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Vehemency Drowning the Light's material can be best described as hit and miss but on Vampyric Winter this Australian band offers good, yet short, tracks. As it is a seven inch vinyl, you can't really ask for more material.

"Black Candle Burning Out" is a simple, 1-minute keyboard intro track that sets the mood for the rest of the EP with its melancholic atmosphere. Next we have two sorrowful black metal tracks, the title track and "Last Sunset of a Dying Age". Drowning the Light still utilizes programmed drums, which is a minus, but they are bearable. Guitars are somewhat distant and have reverb on them, and Azgorh's shrieks are quite on top of everything - not too loud, though. The EP ends with "Frozen Stare", a fitting title for a beautiful guitar outro that I would love to hear in a more extended form.

While you can accuse Drowning the Light of putting out too much material, Vampyric Winter succeeds in being enough inspired sounding. The songs here have somewhat magical aura on them which is something I haven't witnessed on any other Drowning the Light release. Also, the melodies are of rather high quality. Vampyric Winter is definitely not essential, but a nice snack for Drowning the Light fans.

Vehemency On An Alignment of Dead Stars, the extremely prolific Australian black metal cult Drowning the Light has reached its highest point, at least so far that is. The band's development every year from a release to another release has been clear, and one of the helping things is the inclusion of a full line-up - in other words, Drowning the Light doesn’t sound like a cheap bedroom black metal project anymore.

An Alignment of Dead Stars is a massive album: in length (70 minutes), in style, and in the size of the booklet. Although the compositions usually follow the common Drowning the Light pattern with sorrowful atmosphere in mid-tempo, tracks like ”Drinking the Sacrament of Eternity (Revenge of the Impaler)” show elements of RAC. Every now and then an acoustic interlude appears, and the acoustic guitars are often involved in the black metal songs too, building the songs to their climaxes. Synths have the same role, and it is these certain elements that keep the album from sounding too monotonous.

Hence the length of the album is not a too high barrier for me - anyways, most often I listen to this album in two sessions. An Alignment of Dead Stars is indeed the best release Drowning the Light has come up with so far, and it is clear that the members have put lots of thought into it. The only mediocre moments appear near the center of the album where songs like ”Crippled Lies and a Fallen Prophet” and ”Gone...” don’t reach as far as the rest of the album. Anyhow, An Alignment of Dead Stars flows nicely from the beginning to the end. Production-wise the album is unsurprisingly underground sounding, but also the clearest album they have put out so far. It will be interesting to see how, or if, Drowning the Light will ever beat this monster.