Making their name over the past decade with concept albums on perennial themes like folklore, war and paranormal activity, this symphonically enhanced Dutch trio ruffled some purist feathers with the lyric video to this album’s sardonically titled advance cut, There’s No Place Like Home.
Domestic violence and child abuse, it was suggested, aren’t very black metal – although the full album concerns the rather trustier topic of witchcraft.
Irresistibly named highlights like Possessed By A Craft Of Witchery and Killed And Served By The Devil garnish Carach Angren’s clattering, staccato rhythmical backbone with a dazzling array of dramatic orchestral ornamentation with greater skill and ingenuity than the usual thrash-with-a-Casio that passes for symphonic BM. Once synonymous with Dimmu and Cradle, this oft-mocked subgenre has acquired a new lease of life lately with compelling records like this and the latest Dark Fortress. It’s also tricky to present traditional rasping vocals in such a proclamatory, measured fashion, but beneath the orthodox surface Carach Angren reveal many imaginative signature quirks guaranteeing …Fairytale a longer shelf-life than most.
Via Season Of Mist
