Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 10:15 AM by Giorgos Tsekas
Genre: Black Metal/Rock
Country: U.S.A.
Label: Season of Mist
Year: 2018
Hailing from Atlanta, U.S.A., Cloak are being promoted by their label as a black ‘n’ roll band, which is neither a complete lie, nor the truth. Season of Mist might as well call them “the American answer to” or “a clone of” Tribulation. In terms of originality, it would not be fair to compare them to Tribulation since there is not parthenogenesis in music. However, the similarity of the two bands cannot be ignored! Having said that, I would not even bother writing this review if Cloak were common copy-pasters, or if they had zero potential for creating something worthy and memorable. “Venomous Depths” stands with one foot in black metal and with the other one in “The Children of the Night”, an album that is becoming rather influential in the scene. The 11 songs of the album reveal a band with a lot of talent and synthetic skills. The production is clear, while the drums emit a natural vibe that gives points to the overall sound of the band. The guitars have this haunting gothic tone and their tuning honors the black metal influences of Cloak. The impressively well-structured and smart guitar solos justify absolutely the term black ‘n’ roll. The use of keys was expected as well as the Satyricon influences. Sometimes I got the feeling that the tempo of the songs was slow on purpose. If they were played a bit faster it would make the album much better to listen to (lasting almost an hour long, which is a bit far-fetched for the genre) and would give a more aggressive mood to the songs. The best ones for me were the “Hunger”, “Within the Timeless Black”, “Forever Burned” and “Deep Red” (which closes the album in a black metal mode). If Cloak include more personal elements in their next release, we will talk about another band on another level … and rate.
4/6
