The more a musician gathers musical influences, the better. It means that the diversity that a musical work can bring due the fact that a musician isn't bound by a specific Metal genre is something that can be hard to resist to. It's a feature simple to be heard on the works of any great bands one can think of, and it's presented on "At Midnight, By Torch Light", the first album of the North American one man band SEVER. On one hand, the musical work exposed by Ma-Kaxul is plenty of Old School Black/Death Metal influences inherited of acts as SARCÓFAGO (on "I.N.R.I." days) and BEHERIT, especially on the piledriving tempos; on the other hand, the album is permeated by Symphonic/Melodic Black Metal traces of the past, when acts as EMPEROR and SATYRICON were just beginning to express their ideas.

But pay attention, because the band uses some different influences on its music (as the Gothic Rock temper heard on the vocals and some melodies of "Lunar Sacrifice"). So it sounds brutal and melodic at the same time, with many keyboards' parts creating funeral ambiences when needed. Of course the album shows some immaturity, but the musical potential is far greater, so it's a matter of time to things get in their due places. The production is crude and nasty, as album of the first days of the Second Wave of Black Metal did on their times, what can bring some hardships to the fans to understand the band's musical expressions. Of course a clear reason exists to explain the reasons of being in such way (the need to bring some of the crudeness of the past back to life), but it could be done in other ways that could be better.

The ideas shown by Ma-Kaxul are worthy of being heard by extreme Metal fans, and the mix between aggressiveness with morbid melodies offered on the album are really great on moments as "Abyssonaut" (the guitar arrangements are really excellent, full of Black Metal hooks), "Lunar Sacrifice" (a darkened song with some funeral melodic ambiences and very good rhythmic conductions of bass guitar and drums), "Sunset in the West" (these nasty and darkened ambiences are really great, with the snarls of the vocals arising in the right time), and the brutal and funereal "At Midnight, by Torch Light" are the right ones for a first ride on the album. Once more: the album isn't brilliant and shows a band that needs to mature a bit more, but that is on the right track and shows potential.

This first offering done by SEVER is really very good, and adjusting the production for the next time, the potential shown on "At Midnight, By Torch Light" will be fully exposed.