In the past, the diversity inside Metal was compacted on three bands: BLACK SABBATH, JUDAS PRIEST and MOTÖRHEAD. They're the foundations of everything that exist today. In other worlds, all Metal genres one hears were born from their efforts. It means as well that, in some moment on history, Death Metal, Black Metal and Doom Metal were extremely near of each other that one band could use elements of the three genres at the same time. And the Australian trio CHARNEL ALTAR works on such way, as can be heard on their first album, "Abatement of the Sun".

Their musical work is based on an Old School form of Death/Doom/Black Metal that was common for the early releases of names as SARCÓFAGO and BEHERIT, and some elements of the primordial age of PARADISE LOST (in their Doom/Death Metal period) can be detected as well. It's a slow and oppressive form of music, filled with funereal and darkened ambiences. It's aggressive, crude, and brutal, and it's clear as well that their music isn't something that wasn't heard before, and that they still have to mature their efforts, but they're on the right path. It's obvious that Jon McNichol (recording, mixing) and Dan Lowndes (mastering) worked in a way to create the right sonority for the album. But the choice was done in the wrong way, because the sonority is extremely crude and fuzzy, and sometimes is difficult to understand what's being played. And the choice for the tunes of the drums is really wrong. To be crude and aggressive doesn't mean to be in such way.

There are good ideas that the band shows on their songs, as "Grave Totem" (good darkened ambiences, but the grunts of the vocals are impossible to understand), "Vexation of Sorrow" (good rhythmic changes, but the instrumental tunes aren't helping), "Slaughter", "Wormworld", "Malefic Blessings" (what the Hell are the guitars expressing?) and "Metempsychosis". But as the sonority isn't good, things become too raw and distorted that it's hard to get what they're trying to express in the deeper sense of their work. So it can be assumed that they're a band that needs a good producer to set things as they need to be.

For now, "Abatement of the Sun" is showing that CHARNEL ALTAR is a band that came out of the garage too early, and that needs to have some more rehearsals to be at the right point. And please, hire a good producer the next time.