Tristwood
Blackcrowned Majesty

Tristwood from Austria is a band that don’t like the modern plasticky commercial direction of modern death metal and extreme metal. They want to make their music raw, shabby and lightning fast and they are doing so while telling a story on their new album Blackcrowned Majesty. The story is about an old dark ruler that comes back and reclaims the throne and the story around that. Most of the time I don’t bother with the stories on albums as they aren’t often easy to follow, as is the case on this as well as many other albums. The cover that is related to this concept is very cool though and I really like that and wouldn’t mind a vinyl copy in the record shelf just because of that – then again, I can’t afford to buy albums just for the cover and I didn’t see that this was available as a vinyl anyway.

I think they succeed in their quest to be raw, shabby, and fast, their brand of extreme metal is all that. They do have some nice addons with synths and stuff that are atypical of the genre, especially the underground variety to which they adhere. There is this massive wall of sound for most part of the album and this kind of detracts from the storytelling but also masks the diversity that they have in their music – at first glance it sounds like any other underground extreme metal band, just fast smattering and growly vocals. With some more close examination they appear to be a little more than that, they do their thing but at the same time they hide it behind this wall of sound. In other words, I think they could have done more with the production to enhance the nuances in their music and hence create a more exciting and captivating soundscape to their story.

There are also the vocals here, they are evil growls and such for most parts but some of it is ridiculous or silly as well. That is always the tightrope when making the underground style of raw death/extreme metal, many times it stops being dark, raw and evil and just becomes silly and parodic, I have heard countless bands fall into that trap – Tristwood avoid it for the most part bar some of the vocals that I find being humorous rather than in line with the story itself. I like the synths and the avant-garde industrial elements they add to their raw death metal, it is a bit refreshing. There are good and interesting things about this band, but I still don’t really feel convinced about what they have to offer, as I think the album needs more nuance and depth.

Fans of the underground extreme metal should like this album as it presses the right buttons and adds something that isn’t usually found in the genre, and that should be positive. Too bad the novelty drowns in their wall of sound but at least it is there, and they give something to a genre that we almost categorically write down here at Hallowed – isn’t it kind of brave that they send us their album to be reviewed under such circumstances? The concept of Blackcrowned Majesty is interesting and the band has good ideas, but they should have worked a bit more on their production to make it better than average.

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