:: Conspiracy - Concordat

Conspiracy

After testing the waters with his debut release ‘Reincarnated’ in 2006, bassist/backing vocalist/keyboardist Alex ‘Carpathian Wolf’ decided to part ways with Israeli/Netherlands based black/death/folk metal act Melechesh after a twelve year partnership, and forged ahead with his one man solo project Conspiracy. Despite being lumped under the black metal genre, Conspiracy’s sophomore effort ‘Concordat’ follows a similar path to ‘Reincarnated’ as being another incredibly varied effort, with the eight tracks on the album covering blackened thrash, death/death metal and even boasting some subtle folk influences in places.

The opening trio of tracks, namely ‘Mentally Ill God’, ‘Die In Style’ and the title track ‘Concordat (Conquerdate)’, certainly get the album off to an almighty start, with Alex’s tight knit riffing leaning more towards blackened thrash than black metal for the most part. There’s a distinct melodic aspect heard within the guitar lines which allows the listener to grab onto besides the constant thrashing in the background, while on the vocal front, Alex puts forth a fierce death metal scream throughout, but with an underlining growl to give the songs an overall death metal feel. ‘Terrorised Into Submission’, much like the opening tracks is a fast paced thrash outing, but noted for some impressive lead guitar work and moments of breathing space in amongst the frantic all out speed, while the slower and more folk influenced ‘Faith’ and ‘The Last Veteran’, Alex invokes a predominate doom/Viking metal atmosphere to proceedings. The remaining two tracks ‘Limited To 666’ and ‘Courage’ are by far the album’s most accessible numbers with their catchier choruses and melodic guitar work, all the while retaining the blackened thrash feel that is Conspiracy’s musical foundation.

Despite a muddied production, and a somewhat scattered feel in terms of direction from one track to the next, overall, ‘Concordat’ is an all-round solid slab of blackened thrash, and a more than worthy follow up to ‘Reincarnated’, one that should appeal to old-school black/thrash metal fans.