Vehemency Keep of Kalessin might not be the thing in the underground right now, considering their appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest a year back, this event triggering a flood of youngsters hailing the band’s name, but the truth is that the group has their own epic and extreme thing going on, and I personally consider ”Armada” a quite damn nice album. Subliritum’s recent release A Touch of Death brings me back to that certain record because we’re dealing with very, very similar music here. No surprise there, as Keep of Kalessin’s singer Thebon is handling guest vocals vocals every now and then, not to forget the session drums battered by no-one else than Vyl from the aforementioned group as well.

The comparison above basically means that A Touch of Death is melodic, semi-technical, partially epic, fast and well-produced black metal. Old Man’s Child is another fitting name to drop here, as is Arcturus’ Sideshow Symphonies due to some occasional clean vocals that are pretty much identical to ICS Vortex’s output.

The fact that I am able to compare A Touch of Death to so many bands tells already that there’s not much room for uniqueness, and no matter how crushing some heavy sections and how sweet some melodic passages here are, there’s always a layer of safeness and predictability over the music. This is of course just a matter of taste, and the reader might be aware of my inclination towards raw and not-that-careful black metal, so in my books the tameness is a minus. In its own category, meaning modern melodic black metal, I see no reason why this wouldn’t appeal to the style’s fans, as A Touch of Death is evidently a thoughtfully crafted work, and I haven’t come across a better album in its field in some time.

As said, A Touch of Death has its specific fanbase that will most likely revere the album’s blasting rapidity and lush guitar solos. Those merely into uglier and filthier old school metal should logically stay away. I guess I’m somewhere in the middlegrounds as I’m able to spot the group’s talent but in the same time the compositions don’t really move me. Bring something more daring to the game and yours truly is much more impressed already.