Extol - Burial (1998)
This is the highly anticipated debut cd from Norway's finest! The line-up now features Ole Borud (ex-SCHALIACH) on guitars, flute and clear vocals. The music is intricate and complex with lots of rhythm changes. It is a hybrid of death, black and classical metal sounding at times like something BELIEVER might have come up with if they were still around. The sound of Ole's former band Schaliach is very present on a couple of tracks. This however is more original and faster paced than Schaliach. Ultra-technical guitars are the name of the game here! My personal favorite track is "Tears Of A Broken Soul" which sounds something like EDGE OF SANITY meets TERAMAZE! (don't worry death bangers, only two tracks feature clear vocals). There is also some cool distorted spoken word parts. Did I mention dirge like keyboards and lots of melodic guitars? Another must have cd from Norway! -- Review by Norm