"Hearts Unchained - At War With A Passionless World," the newest album from the German black metal band IMHA TARIKAT was my introduction to their oeuvre. Ruhsuz Cellât's deep, booming vocals are unexpected in a subgenre full of screeches and rasps. The vocals remind me of those of Max Cavalera's work with SEPULTURA with the reverb and style of Jon Davis from doom metal band CONAN.

After a spooky introductory track, "Radical Righteousness" begins with a shout, followed by blindingly fast instrumentation. Every musical element of this track converges well, forming a pleasant wall of sound. There is a hefty amount of reverb applied to the vocals, and Cellât's voice serves as an anchor, tethering the soaring tremolos to the body of the song. Overall, this song does a good job of setting a foundation for the music to come.

The next track, "Touch Of Mercy," begins with a meandering melancholy melody that quickly wears thin. Thankfully, more fierce black metal makes up for the earlier lag. As the song progresses, both thrash and death metal influences become apparent. The dominant, enthusiastic vocals would not be out of place in a sold-out arena. It's a shame that the beginning of this song is so different from the rest of its parts.

On "Brute Majesty," the vocals are almost upstaged by the instrumentation. The intro builds nicely up to a long scream with layered vocals and echoing whispers. The chaotic music gives way to a more ordered song structure. Towards the end, the tremolo picking gets a bit monotonous, but ultimately this track is still a highlight.

The second half of this album is just as brazen as its first, but the songwriting is even better. "Dominator Proselytism Tactics" wastes no time with an intro. There is a sense of immediacy to the speed metal assault on display. This song instantly reminded me of the SEPULTURA song, "The Hunt," from their "Chaos A.D." album. There is also a punk element to the way the lyrics are shouted. The only issue I took with this track was the long keyboard outro. It did not need to be as long as it was.

"Streams Of Power - Canavar" has more of a doom metal feel. The thrash and punk elements are ever-present as well. This one is slower and less boisterous than previous tracks. Towards the song's end, the bass guitar takes center stage, introducing a thrash lead guitar solo. With everything that this song has to offer, it's the unexpected GHOST style breakdown that impressed me the most.

"Stardust Wisdom (Manifest Of The Deity To The Unkeen)" is another fast song with shouted lyrics. For the majority of this track, Cellât belts out one insult after another. The song structure is simple but effective. The speed and ferocity of previous tracks are maintained here as well but never get boring.

At just over forty-nine minutes, "Hearts Unchained" can be a bit tiring with its all-out sonic warfare approach. Still, with the exception of the intro and interlude tracks, each track is pure quality. The unexpected low black metal vocals are a welcome change. However, the excess reverb on the vocals gets comical after a while. On this, their third full-length album, IMHA TARIKAT, has proven that they are masters of excess, but they tend to stumble whenever they abandon their tried-and-true formula.