Scorched By The Flames Of Vengeance

Album review

When a CD has a title like Scorched by the Flames of Vengeance, could it be anything but metal? Well, it could, but more than likely, an album with that sort of title will contain metal; perhaps power metal or prog metal, perhaps thrash metal, perhaps death metal, perhaps goth metal, or perhaps industrial metal, but most likely metal in some form or another. Scorched by the Flames of Vengeance is, in fact, a metal-oriented effort, although it doesn't fit neatly into one particular metal category. On this CD, Seventh Cross offers an extreme, over-the-top mixture of death metal, black metal and hardcore/metalcore. XSheepX, the British outfit's lead singer, favors a black metal-style rasp, and blastbeats (another ingredient of black metal) are also part of the equation. But anyone who expects Scorched by the Flames of Vengeance to sound exactly like Dark Funeral, Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, or Darkthrone will be disappointed. Yes, this album is relevant to black metal, but it is equally relevant to death metal and has-without question-been greatly influenced by hardcore and metalcore. While the evil-sounding vocals are more black metal than anything, the guitar, bass, and drums have as much to do with death metal and hardcore/metalcore as they do with black metal. Thus, the listeners who are likely to get the most out of this 40-minute disc (which was originally released in the U.K. in 2005 by the Wales-based Staunch label before receiving distribution in the United States in 2006 thanks to Candlelight) will be the sort of listeners who could enter a CD store and purchase Marduk, Triumphator, and Hatebreed releases simultaneously. Scorched by the Flames of Vengeance is uneven and inconsistent, but the album definitely has its moments and indicates that Seventh Cross is worth keeping an eye on.
© Alex Henderson /TiVo