Sacred Son - "Sacred Son" (2017)

SACRED SON - "Sacred Son"

Year: 2017
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Country: England
Tracklist:

1. Cleave the Alicorn
2. Apocalyptic Winter
3. Ethereal Light (Interlude)
4. Sepulchral Ritual

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Belying the summery cover photo, the debut album of the promising solo project Sacred Son is like listening to a blizzard. Swirling vortices of icy riffing and harsh vocals meld through the album, with the cello-heavy interlude "Ethereal Light" offering the only respite from the onslaught. The overall sound is reminiscent of bands like Wolves in the Throne Room, who Dane, the lone artist behind this release, lists as among his chief inspirations, along with formative second wave Norwegian bands such as Darkthrone, Mayhem, and Immortal.

In our brief email conversation, Dane explained his motivation to create the album as well as lyrical themes; "I've been listening to black metal for a long time and I found myself at a point in time last year where my thoughts were regularly pervaded by riffs which I wrote down until I one day had enough material with which to write an album. Thematically I wanted the music to evoke images of snow, mountains and forests (imagery one might typically find on a black metal album cover) whilst lyrically the album touches on things like the ancestories [sic] of evil and the crushing indifference of the universe."

The album builds a distinct mood and atmosphere as it progresses, without sacrificing variety or producing a homogenised or boring sound. This lack of stagnation is refreshing in a genre that can all too easily devolve into lazy songwriting poorly excused by desire to build ambience; Sacred Son shows you can have both the freshness of interesting writing mixed with a hefty dose of atmosphere without either element losing out. I think his choice to keep the album relatively short at half an hour, with only four songs, was a good one, as it allows for a full and intense creative expression without the feeling of trying to fill time at any point. In short, I was impressed by this as a first release, I enjoyed listening to it, and I definitely recommend it to any fans of bands like WiTTR, Ancst, and Krallice, in particular. It's also available for pre-release on vinyl currently, so if the pretentious thrill of buying more LPs is as addictive to you as it is to me, it's well worth spending your money on.

I'd like to add an apology on the end of this, both to the bands who've been waiting so patiently for a review while I sort a few personal issues out and to my fellow writers on RABM for my not keeping up my end of the reviewing these last few months; everything is back on course now, and I look forward to bombarding you all with the backlog of brilliant albums I've been sent in the interim. Thankyou all again for being so patient.

T.G.