Death/Black/Thrash Metal trio ELDPROV (meaning "trial by fire" in Swedish) present their debut full-length release here titled "Rift." The band just formed prior to the Pandemic in 2019. "Affliction" is the first song.  It sounds like an Old School combination of the three aforementioned genres, so that is a good start. The song is fairly aggressive but unfortunately not very new or inventive. There are some melodies in the chorus, however. "Vex" features a slower groove of riffs that you have heard before. The band mixes in some Classical elements in their chord progressions, but besides that, they lay on the open notes too much for my liking.

"Until Nightfall" features some more classical song structures, and the band at least last that going for them. The energy of the songs is also pretty strong, but they need to find variation in their riffs. "Silhouettes" is the shortest on the album. It just really doesn't offer anything new on the album. The band has the dark and aggressive side down pat, and this is where many new bands often get tripped up, because there is much more to music than sheet brute. By contrast, "Third Crow" is twice as long, so there is plenty of time to develop the sound. The slower grind does allow for some development, but besides the clean female vocals the band really doesn't explore much. The clean guitars at the end is a start but they have a way to go.

"We, The Unclean" is another song with a similar sound to the others on the album. I get that this is a new band, and playing it safe is probably the best hand they can play, but I would rather have them try something new and fall on their face then just settle on this same sound over and over. "Hunt" closes the album. The easy pacing in the beginning is a little change of pace, which is always good. From there, however, it goes back downhill as the band rests on harsh vocals and simple guitar riffs. As I mentioned in the review, this is a newer band, so you can excuse them to playing it safe to some degree. But, as a reviewer, it is necessary to point out the shortcomings of such an approach.