When I was asked to review this album I knew immediately that I would have to treat it with a little caution. The reason for my saying so is because whenever I approach a band which is described to me as Traditional Doom Metal, a warning bell rings inside my head and a voice whispers to me saying: Oh no, this is probably going to be another BLACK SABBATH rip off, something that is very common in this line of genre. However, I was glad to find out that this wasn't the case with BLACK OATH.

I wouldn't say that they are an original band though. The guitar riffs are mostly good but most of them make me feel like I have heard them before as they didn't leave any impact in most cases. The song structures are good but most of them contain no surprises, neither in terms of musical nor in the aspects of atmosphere. What bothered me the most was that I felt there was something very stale in their approach to music throughout most of the album. They no doubt had a clear vision in their heads as to how they wanted their music to sound like and that is a good thing, especially when making a debut album. Nevertheless, I felt like they let it come on top of actually enjoying while creating and playing it, this notion was emphasized by the vocalist A.th whom I felt for some reason has a very similar voice to that of James Hetfield but unlike James, he lacks the passion and the interesting song delivery.

There are no surprises in the lyrical aspect as well. The lyrics deal with topics such as death and the occult, something that is also very common in this genre. BLACK OATH didn't shed new light on those subjects. The literary level is very standard as well, I got the feeling that they wrote the lyrics only to emphasize the atmosphere of the songs and in that they have succeeded, but it is something that saddened me a great deal because I am a one who cares deeply for the written word, and I see a lot of bands who take this approach towards their lyrics.

To be honest I was already ready to declare this as a completely mediocre album in my mind right until the last two songs of the album hit me out of nowhere and symbolized a great turn of events. The first one was "Horcell The Temple". This song has powerful heavy riffs and a very epic vibe to it that made it feel grand and put a smile on my face. For the first time in this album it seemed to me like the band was having fun, this energy shift poured into to the last song of the album which carries the band's name "The Black Oath". This song took the epic approach a step further and it would probably do well serving as the band's anthem because it felt like it was just made for people to sing along to and it closed the album in a very appropriate and satisfying way.

All in all I would say this is a pretty good album and a good debut effort, the band sure knows who they are, what they want to do and how they are going to do it, but I have the feeling that if this band will think a little out of the box and write songs that are more fun for them to play we will be able to see the full potential tapped into them.

This album is in no way a must have but it is definitely worth a shot, especially if you are into Doom Metal. As for me, I will keep an eye for future releases of this band.<