Canadian Melodic Death Metal 4 piece, SCIMITAR return to your tour with their first album in 9 years since their debut album "Black Waters". This album includes the previously released singles, "To Cultivate with Spears", "Wandering at the Moon" and "Knights collapse" which were released in 2013, 2014 and earlier this year, respectively. Their previous album was released independently and so is this. So let's hear what they have to offer

"State of Nature" sounds like a mix of old western meets Australian didgeridoo at the start, before the melody begins in full. The starting vocals are just a shout out, but work their way well with the surrounding sounds. It's a decent, instrumental intro to the album. "Knights Collapse" continues in the same way as previous. However, not long in, the vocals kick in. It's a mix of almost Hardcore meets Melo-Death style vocals. The pace of instruments doesn't really match it, which is noticeable. The melody, is a great sound, overall better than the vocals to go with, which starts going into almost Nu-Metal era paced vocals. It doesn't match the feel you think it should.

"Flayed on the Birth Rack" builds up on the guitar well, seemingly setting the pace for others to follow. Voclas have slowed to a more Melo-death pace again, thankfully and actually work more in pace with the rest of the band, mostly. The overall feel isn't too bad, it keeps going well, but it just never sparks into life, you may expect a few solos, you would be wrong. "Wandering At The Moon" starts similar to the intro, almost like you were at a Medievel fair, its quite amusing. The vocals kick in after 90 seconds or so, a lot better balanced than before. Its more of a Pagan/Melod-death sounding song, just not as fast as many others, but this is this band's sound. The balance plays out well into the rest of the song, its arguably the best song thusfar.

"To Cultivate with Spears" takes the strengths from the previous song and goes deeper into Melo-Death terriroty, which is a much better sounding song. Could be a late bloomer. This one is a faster song, however, the vocals keep in pace very well. Thinking about how the album would have progressed if this was the starting sound. It plays out into late intot he song much more harmonically. A better approach.

So, the vocals are really not great, but the instrumentalists pull it together. Could worse, could be better in places.Not a bad album just not a good album. It is a late bloomer in sound. The only thing is, there are many other Pagan / Melo-Death Bands with albums out better

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