Coming out of nowhere (well, Finland actually), Renascent has unleashed this powerful 18 minute EP that has the underground metal scene buzzing. Very rarely does a band of this talent release music of this quality without some kind of warning before the release is available. While this may be just 18 minutes, it's packed full of killer extreme metal.
Renascent plays a mixture of black, death, and thrash metal with plenty of melodic and technical flair. This should easily appeal to fans of bands like Crimson Moonlight, Dissection, Emperor, and Old Man's Child, among others. Vocally, the band does a terrific job with a mixture of black influenced death vocals and some clean singing/chanting.
The opening song, "In the Midst of Persecution" begins with a short ambient intro, before ripping into the metal. This album is chock full of brutal and very addictive riffs with a heavy dose of keys and tons of double bass. The band has no problem switching from slow and plodding to blazing fast, all the while keeping the listener's headphones secure to their ears and their fingers far from the skip button.
All four songs here are excellent, but my favorite is probably the closer, "Son of God". Brutally heavy with some cool clean vocals that sound very Emperor influenced. Very good lyrics on this song as well! The entire album has very bold and evangelistic lyrics that leave no doubt as to the band's faith.
Production and artwork are both very well done as well, so you know that you're getting a extremely well-rounded release. Don't let the 18 minute time limit scare you off, cause this disc is worth every penny. I think I heard that this was released in a very limited quantity, so you may not want to wait too long and be one of those fans frantically searching for it on Ebay, like all the Vaakevandring fans searching for their old demo and paying $50 and $60 for a copy. (Review by Matt)
