ILIAC THORNS is a blackened / melodic Death Metal band hailing from old reliable Finland, home of many blackened bands and even more of every other subgenre. So, that being said, ILIAC THORNS has a little to live up to - just a little. With their oddly titled "IT", the band tries their best to make a thunderous impact on multiple levels. The result: "IT" is something passable; nothing great.

The reason I find that ILIAC THORNS falls a little flat on this full-length is that it holds too many elements up in the air. Sure it does have a dash of Black Metal, a dash of Death Metal, even a dash of Punk on songs like "Brutal Seizure" but the measurements are all wrong. Songs follow a formula of Death-Black-Death-Black with such strange jarring arrangement changes that I don't fully know what ILIAC THORNS was attempting to do here. And, what I mean here is that when a song is going down a Death route the music sounds like death metal, then some Black Metal style vocals come in and all of a sudden everything sounds like it's out of an OLD FUNERAL or BLODSRIT album. So, basically songs feel like cut and pasted elements - they are good elements but they are maybe misconnected in some strange indiscernible way.

All of this, plus the fact that the album somewhat descends into Hardcore territory in its later tracks, makes me more feel like it could be more aptly labeled 'Avant Garde' (Though probably in the most minimal sense). With all these mashed elements, the album still feels somewhat regular - just on many more labels. You probably won't receive anything new or fresh from IT but if you aren't into black quite that much - maybe want to try something out close to it - you could give ILIAC THORNS and "IT" a try.