From their EPK, “Belonging to the first Spanish black metal wave, and to the Catalan movement known as Blackcelona, BLAZEMTH are survivors of their time who continue to pay homage to the purest and most traditional black metal. Now Volkhaar and company present “Gehenna,” a new album thanks to the Negra Nit label. This past Christmas was blasphemous, because they plunged us into the Reign of Shadows with a great album that lives up to their legacy.” The album has nine songs, and “Enok” is first. It’s an odd but effective song, pushing harrowing background elements into your ears.

“To the Valley” explodes out of the gates with a traditional Black Metal sound, mixed in with some Thrash and even Death elements. “Thy Hell” is a little more discernable in terms of the sound, but still fairly chaotic with all things considered. It isn’t overly inventive however, and the band seems to be OK with that. “Well All Die Guilty” is really the first song with some variation. Somber, scary clean guitars combine with frightening vocals in the opening, leading to a slow and powerful riff and sound. However, they still need to find a way to put some more personality into their music.

“I am Fire, I Am Death” is more of that I am talking about. The band uses more clean guitars and some blues based leads in the beginning, but then the familiar jaunt returns, with riffs that you have heard before. “Incantation” also begins with clean guitars, and I wish the band would let this sound ride out a little longer, because it is just as effective at creating scary sounds as their more aggressive side. There are some nice backing vocals here, but again, the riffing is too simple. “The Graven” is two minutes of a blast of fire and smoke directly into your face, and the pedal is pushed down the entire way.

“Nifelheim” closes the album, and it’s the longest and most productive song on the album. Cold winds howl in the beginning, and clean guitars enter, followed by a slow and deliberate grind that you can nod your head to. This album wasn’t a total loss, but the band has to find a way to put some distance between them and other bands in the genre. Black Metal’s boundaries are endless, but they chose to stay within specific confines.