Limbonic Art

Legacy of Evil

Candlelight Records 2007

After quite a hiatus the duo Morfeus and Daemon resurface to resurrect the Norwegian Symphonic Black Metal legends, Limbonic Art.  I have never been much of a big fan of their early works and completely skipped their The Ultimate Death Worship album being completely bored with their direction and symphonic black metal as a whole.  So it was without much fanfare that I received what has turned out to be not only the highlight of Limbonic Art's career but one of the year's best albums in general.  I am not sure what transpired during their absence but these two have returned stronger and more focused.  The music on Legacy of Evil is more guitar oriented and much more aggressive.  Check A Void of Lifeless Dreams with its crushing death metal rhythms and tasteful use of keyboard accents that add depth to the song rather than take over and drown the song's darkness and blackened spirit.  Whereas the previous track reeks of malice and brutality, Grace by Torments is a mournful dirge complete with chiming bells and sweeping melodic guitar leads and Daemon's vocals elicit a feeling of tragedy from the listener as he morphs his vocals from their normal black metal screeching.  The title track still delves into swirling keyboard flourishes providing a sort of look back into their electronics drenched roots.  But somehow the guitars still manage to take command of the song.  Lycanthropic Tales punishes my ears with freezing winds in the form of hailstorm guitars and thick yet hollow sounding riffs as deep as a northern Fjord.  The only drawback to me for this album is I feel it runs a little long, approaching the one hour mark and I feel they could have delivered their ideas in a little less time and it would have had more impact but even with that being said this album still hacks its way through the competition and single-handedly brings symphonic black metal back as a legitimate style for me rather than leaving it as the domain of gothic and pretentious rock stars.  Limbonic Art have returned stronger than ever before and blown away all my expectations for Legacy of Evil.