ANGEL 7 - BLACK AND WHITE

Angel 7 released “Black and White” in 2006 on the Bombworks label. Some real intense black/death metal is to be found here. On this release Angel 7 was a two man project, I don’t know if I’d say ‘band’. However upon looking at their website it appears they’ve added a second guitarist. Powerful guitars, screaming double bass and vocals that sound like a cement mixer.

Nikolay Kiriljuk (guitars) and Slava Malinin (EVERYTHING else… drums, vocals, keyboards, bass...!) made up Angel 7 at the time of this release. Hailing from the Ukraine these Brothers in Christ put it all out on the table. I do mean ALL, they hold nothing back.

There is absolutely no misunderstanding where their allegiance lies. Some of the lyrics from their the second song “New Heavens Above the New Land” are as follows ‘But in ruthless war with Satan/ You cannot remain one/ There will be New Heavens/ Above the New Land/ And the True Savior/ There will be with you.’ If they sound a little disjointed it’s because Angel 7 sing everything in Ukrainian.

However the package comes with English translations of the lyrics. Having said that I think you’ll find even if you don’t understand the language fans of extreme metal will dig this. After all the music of Heavy Metal can cross racial/ethnic/religious lines not too mention lines on a map! There are some very melodic arrangements that make their way through all the bombast. You won’t find many clean vocals here, but put intense vocal overkill. Slava adds some keyboard touches that are very nice. There are also many solos where Nikolay just lets it all hang out.

When songs such as ‘New Heavens Above the New Land’, ‘Until I Have Not Died’ and ‘The Eternity Calls’ come on it’s clear that Slava and Nikolay know how to put the pedal to the proverbial floor and kick in the afterburners. The disc does move right along at a pretty fast clip, there are even three instrumentals that add some atmosphere and dynamics to this release.

The production is very good, a little too much on the upper end frequencies (which is probably a mastering issue). Yet everything seems to sound evenly spaced and clear. Fans of intense death/black metal should snatch this disc up immediately.

7 AXES