Well shit. I slept on this album and a couple others for at least a MONTH, so I need to lock the hell in and write about some black metal. Velmorth's "Feral Dominion" was released last December via Purity Through Fire, your one-stop shop for all things kvlty. You can buy shirts, both long-sleeve and short-sleeve; patches; and CDs of Velmorth's "new" record, but I'd put the credit card away until the review's finished.

Whip your credit card back out if at least one of the following applies to you: 1) You like melodic black metal with lush keyboard orchestrations. Velmorth makes sure that from the opener to the closer, the keys get their fair share of the spotlight. While less prominent as the album progresses, tracks like "Feral Dominion," "Ascend in Chaos Fury," and "Approaching Wrathstorm" will scratch any dungeon synth-related itch. 2) You dig classic black metal drumming and guitarwork. This album is loaded with relentless, dissonant riffing that'll envelop you in the heaviest weighted blanket ever. That blanket is always covering a bed of perpetual blast beats that never cease for a second, showing that whoever's drumming is a machine, or it literally IS a machine (in that case, it's immediately less impressive). 3) You adore pained, screechy black metal tones that, with just the right pitch, could break any glass in a fifty-foot radius. Velmorth handles said vocals, and his rasp will make you want to drink water yourself, if there's any intact drinkware left. If you like those three things, start entering your details.

Keep the credit card away if the following applies to you: You decry monotony. "Feral Dominion" was as brutal as it was boring. No two songs sounded different, and the lack of track-to-track identity really messed with me. Velmorth did not attempt to differentiate anything throughout the record's forty-minute runtime. The only elements I vividly remember were a rather corny sample of the serial killer Joseph Kallinger's 1979 interview, where he "felt like killing people," and the aforementioned keyboards. I fear the riffs, solos, and literally everything else were rather unremarkable. Black metal has never been my jam because of the genre's blatant stagnation, and while I've heard my fair share of exciting, experimental, and quality black metal releases, this was not one of them.

Well, the decision is yours. Do you draw your card from your wallet in the name of black metal purism? Or do you refrain from doing so in the name of personal standards? I'll join in on your refrain, if you don't mind.