Ah, the split. The underappreciated release that can highlight potential up-and-comers, or showcase multiple bands that don’t bring anything interesting to the table. Sometimes, a split gets released and reveals the best of a band’s material (the Undergang/Spectral Voice split from this year is a prime example). So where does this four-way split land? With no expectations whatsoever, I dove in, hoping for a gem amongst the dirt. The first attempt to make a case for why I should care for these artists came in the form of Mourn the Light. At times a Traditional Heavy Metal band, and at times a band that could easily have their place on 80s rock radio, these folks find themselves in a confusing crossroads of “not knowing what style of heavy music to play”, as in both songs showcased, they flip-flop between rousing, energetic tunes that evoke bands like Poison, and cheesy, 80s-style Journey or Boston worship. The two songs are quite vocally driven, but the vocalist isn’t the best. He’s not the worst on the album, but he comes off as a bit flat in both songs. High Priest was up next, and immediately the tone of the split shifted to something more akin to Doom Metal than anything else. That being said, High Priest was the most milquetoast contender on this split, with all three of their songs playing tepid, lifeless riffs that sound nigh indistinguishable from each other. Again a vocally-driven act, but this vocalist, while having a bit more “oomph” than Mourn the Light, relied too much on vibrato to make the songs work, and ended up coming off as more hammy than what was most likely intended. A cool solo popped up in two of their songs, but for the most part, High Priest was not a band I would consider following.
Next up was Ice Howl. The highlight of the split, this band immediately brought some much-needed energy and fun in their songs. “Silent Resistance” was the best song on here, and while no band ever played anything truly ridiculous, this track made the otherwise quite tepid release somewhat worthwhile to listen to. Ice Howl’s vocalist also happens to be the most competent of the four displayed, sounding loosely akin to Jake Rogers (Visigoth). This band has a promising future if they can pump out more fun tunes in the future. However, once Ice Howl’s portion ended and Archdruid’s started, a noticeable dip in quality happened: the final two songs sounded more like a demo than fully fleshed out. Bringing a Stoner Doom-esque sound, their highlight “Niseag” showcased doomy riffs with an early Sabbath energy that almost made me forgive the at times horrendous vocal performance in their opening track before the vocalist showed up and immediately made the song worse. Unfortunately, Archdruid’s vocal performance was the worst aspect of the split as a whole. I’ve no doubt their singer has some talent in her somewhere, but her chosen vocal techniques did not do a good job convincing me to listen to any future releases by this band. Overall, there were some interesting ideas present on the split, but not enough that I would readily go for these four bands when I could listen to other, better music in the Traditional Heavy / Doom Metal space.
