Cenotaph where a band from Mexico that played a melodic form of black/death metal and this is a review of their 1994 album "Riding Our Black Oceans" which was re-released by Chaos Records in the year of 2014.
Spoken word parts which also return on some of the later tracks as well start off the album along with some acoustic guitars a few seconds later which leads up to a more heavy and melodic blackened death metal direction along with a mixture of growls and blast beats which also leads up to blast beats and melodic guitar leads being added into the music as well as some powerful sounding bass guitars.
The bands musical style sounded for technical and progressive for the time this album was recorded and they also bring in a couple of tracks that are very long and epic in length along with a small amount of clean singing being used in certain sections of the recording and the band also brings in a decent mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts.
All of the tracks have a very dark atmosphere to them while also remaining heavy at the same time and you can also hear a great amount of talent and skill in the instruments and as the album progresses small amounts of clean playing can be heard at times along with a brief acoustic instrumental before making a return back to a heavier musical direction.
Cenotaph had a very different sound for their time playing a melodic and technical from of black/death metal and this is an early example of that musical genre and they had the perfect balance between melody, heaviness and darkness, the production has a very dark, raw and heavy sound while the lyrics cover dark themes.
In my opinion Cenotaph where a very great sounding melodic black/death metal band and if you are a fan of this musical genre, you should check out this album. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "The Soulless" "Macabre Locust Celesta" and "Soul Profundis". 8 out of 10.
http://chaos-records.bandcamp.com/album/riding-our-black-oceans
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