From The Darkness   (Ketzer Records)

 Finally the first full length of this Peruvian Cult Black Metal band is released!! This band is attacking the underground under the name of Black Angel since 1992, but its mastermind and founder Mr. Hector Corpus is active with this entity (under different names) since 1988!! That makes Black Angel one of the oldest Black Metal bands, not only in South America but worldwide… Musically “From The Darkness” is a piece of Black Metal of the finest calibre. Slow to mid paced velocities predominate this work, remarkable are the slow section with sinister, obscure mid tuned (sometimes almost Doom Metal) riffs, just listen the first song “Rites”, and will have a good idea of what this album is all about. Of course there’re fast sections too, with effective blast beats drumming parts, mid tempo riffs and some lead, obscure, guitar lines here and there. The voices are infernal, grim, cut-throat, blackish shrieks which adds a sinister, hellish aura, especially in the slow sections. The incredibly dark atmosphere created in this album is varied but with hypnotic, cyclic parts that will make you fall under some kind of black spell. It’s improved by the songs duration, those are quite long, but never boring, there are a lot of structure’s changes during each song. The production of this album is excellent, with strong sound, you can distinguish, loud and clear each instrument. The style of Black Angel is quite unique and seems to have maintained their sound during all these years, but in this occasion they seem to have improved considerably the technical level in comparison with its previous works. Though it’s an Old School band, formed in the eighties; it doesn’t sound like typical Old School Metal with marked Thrash influences… it sound is Black Metal in its purest, darkest expression. (AP)