SEVENTH ANGEL – The Dust Of Years

After more than 15 years of deep slumber, the Doom/Thrash masters from the UK have arisen from their resting place. Seventh Angel made their comeback to the Metal World with a new album, The Dust Of Years. After all this time, and after being involved with other types of musical projects, the members of Seventh Angel began cleansing the dust from their gears. They reformed themselves not by reissuing their old stuff with a current sound or modernized production, yet by choosing to write new material that relied on their old nature of sound and atmosphere. However, with the release of The Dust Of Years, something changed as their dust drew closer to the ears.

It seems that being apart from each other since their last release, Lament Of The Weary, Seventh Angel chose to continue on a path that took them to a different route than when they started in the mid 1980’s. Right from the start, Seventh Angel showed great talent in playing Old School Thrash Metal that was quite similar to their local fellow citizens’ acts such as Venom and even some of the old Sabbat.

With the release of their first album, The Torment, it was clearly on display that Seventh Angel was another strong British Thrash Metal band that drove with influences from NWOBHM and bits of the popular US Thrash Metal. Despite that basis, the band’s second album showed the foundation of a change in the band, especially from its leader, Ian Arkley’s, approach. That change was the melding of Doom Metal, on its classic and extreme attributes, to their Thrash Metal hookup. Now, as they started a new chapter in their career, Seventh Angel , with The Dust Of Years, seemed to have sunk knee deep into the forbidding arms of Doom Metal while Thrash Metal is only playing a rather minor role on their system. The production of the change was due to the fact that the band, with their will to recapture their old image, tried to mix it up with the members’ influences taken out from their other engagements during the inactivity of the band.
Additionally, Seventh Angel came out of their sleep darker, gloomier and monstrously mysterious than ever. Maybe the only single thing that they preserved from their old ways was their old sound, even if it was a bit reworked in order to give it a stronger shape for present day, as without it they would have gone through a hard time to draw back their uniqueness.

As Seventh Angel’s doomy darkness redefined their older reflection, they came across other sub-genres and other concoctions for their aid. Instead of the raspiness of the old days, Arkley turned into his more aggressive side as he began singing in a growly manner, however not abandoning the chilly cold clean vocals. With the extreme vocals, the album displays a number of good darkened melodic rhythms to the side of massively ominous features. Some of them are the heavy riffs of endless Extreme/Classic Doom that would give off a certain impression that you are listening to My Dying Bride, old Paradise Lost, the old Celtic Frost allied with the classic tones of Traditional Doom Metal as Candlemass and the fathers… Black Sabbath.

For those who admired their Christian Thrash Metal-era should not leave this one behind, however it has some dead parts on it, which sometimes will cause one to yawn a bit, that are pretty common in Doom Metal. Behind the formation of a new identity, Seventh Angel have not abandoned their Thrash Metal roots and one will find them in various places on the album, especially on tracks as “Weep Not For Us” and “Chaos Of Dreams”. On the other hand, there is the approaching grey side of the coin. Seventh Angel seemed to be joining a new family in the Metal industry and they presented some great tracks to suit it: “Abelard And Heloise” – a great story with lots of pain, “Lamentations” – a classic Doom long playing runner, “The Raven Sky” – yet another epic with doomy proportions.

If you are an old fan of Seventh Angel , you don’t have to be upset with their new effort because it’s worth a listen and acquisition. For new fans, this is a good start and for the band, it is a good comeback from the dead, this is your chance to be reborn with them.