BLACK COVEN is not your average Black Metal band. This is because I'm pretty sure they're trying to be Progressive. No, I'm 100 percent sure that's what they're going for. The intro to the first song, "Across the 1,000 Lakes," is rough, and it doesn't ever improve. I'm not lying when I say this is some of, if not the, worst songwriting I've ever heard. I get the struggle that bands face when it comes to originality, and I can tell that Morgane Rake is really pushing for some spec of that. However, it comes off as try-hard. I mean, the guy is fast, and he can clearly play what you put in front of him, but, from what I can hear, there is no songwriting talent present in this band at this current time.

The song starts out with this riff that is pretty much all over the place, yet somehow manages to fall short of technically proficient. There's some lead guitar work that sounds as if it's about to go off into a melodic guitar solo, but it stops before it can climax. Once Rake plays it a second time, it becomes clear it's just a part of the riff. The song continues to delve into an unnecessary 5/4 time signature that consists of five quarter note power chord-chug triplets that are all the same if you don't count the extra notes thrown in on the third beat that you can barely make out. After that, it's a mid-paced lead that would have been a lot better if they didn't include that last quarter note. Then the lead would have been in 5/4 time, and it would have flowed better.

If this track didn't go from a 4/4 seemingly polyrhythmic intro to the most boring use of a 5/4 time to an unnecessary 3/4 to a 4/4 measure followed by a 2/4 measure back into 10 more measures of 4/4 and instead staying in 4/4 the whole time, it would have been much better. Not to mention the solo that concluded the song that was just bad. It was awkward in execution, having slight pauses that weren't very long, but were still long enough to make the listener wonder if the guitarist was okay. Also, the track doesn't have any closure.

As for "Ablazing Dawn," not only is "ablaze" an adjective not a verb, but the song also has some of the try-hard aspects of the first one. The first 30 or so seconds of the track are full of flow, something that this EP desperately needed. Then, out of nowhere, the tempo slows down into a poorly written 3/4 verse. This song isn't as bad as the first one, but the solo doesn't help that fact. I think Rake is attempting to sweep pick, but whatever is going on, it's just as awkward as the solo that ended track one.

The third and final song, "Ovation of the Wolves," is very promising at first, as it is introduced with an acoustic passage that has nice flow. In fact, the flow is maintained even when the distortion kicks in. However, this is all discarded once the riff randomly changes to random notes that once again falls short of technically proficient. This song was much better than the previous two, but that's not saying much. There were still a lot of annoying things going on with it.

One thing that they need to do is work on transitions. It seemed like every riff was just tacked on the end of another riff. Transitions allow flow, and they are extremely essential to any genre of music, but especially metal because there are so many changes in one song. BLACK COVEN need to keep in mind that just because they like a riff does not mean that it has to be used. A song that flows with riffs that are transitioned into is a lot better than one with a bunch of good riffs stuck on top of each other. All of the choppy songwriting and forcibly progressive music is what makes this track (and the next two) suffer. Their material has little to no flow and is ambitious in a way that hurts them. Either these guys need to keep their time signatures straight or they need to learn how to play progressive metal correctly without making it sound forced.

I know it's a cliché to say that a band has potential, but I can see it in them. I get these guys. I used to write like this too because I too understand that if there's one thing that 99 percent of metal lacks, it's originality. I used to obsess over being super technical and making my music as original as possible, avoiding any usage or trace of a basic melody. But you don't need to try this hard to be original, and I hope BLACK COVEN realizes this when it comes time for them to write a full-length.

Also, if you're going to write technical or progressive music, I would recommend using good production. This album was awfully produced, even for Black Metal.