Review by Nekrist on September 4, 2024.

A Monumental Black Statue (AMBS), is an extreme metal outfit that proudly wears a caustic and occult style of black metal that will not leave an educated ear indifferent. As unusual and incredible as it may seem, compatriots and acquaintances of the thinking mind behind AMBS and Exaltatio Diaboli known by his pseudonym “Vexator”, contacted me through the Metal Archives forum because they needed a vocalist, I accepted their request and collaborated with the local Umbrian scene from Spain, that why I feel a deep respect towards it. A brotherhood was created between these musicians and me, managing to release physical material and keep in touch despite the distance that separates us.

Next, we will dissect and investigate the message that these artists captured in what for me is their most mature and spiritually charged work entitled The Touch Of The Moon With The Golden Veil, because yes, when reviewing bands that take their spiritual approaches seriously it is a duty to explore the lyrics to understand and enjoy the album even more. If you are a fan of contemporary, serious, dissonant, and chaotic extreme metal, this is an album you must listen to and have in your personal collection. The Touch Of The Moon With The Golden Veil, carry the torch that bands like Aosoth, Funeral Mist, Akhlys, Abigor, Misþyrming, and the also Italian Altar Of Perverssion have been contributing to the wide world of black metal in the last decades, exploring Satanism and Ancestral Cult from a Theistic and Gnostic perspective that adds a very special touch to their music. The melodies and riffs are furious, quickly reminiscent of the best moments of a band like Marduk or Triumphator, the drums are of course highly technical and precise to be able to properly accompany such frenetic guitars, creating a great imposing sonic wall, incessant and penetrating, full of energy, Vexator's voices are creeping and hateful, spitting with conviction inspired and deep lyrics, loaded with an Esoteric Folklore inspired by Ancestral and Infernal forces that inspired the creation of this work. The album has a heroic and epic sound that quickly immerses you in its atmosphere, the production fits perfectly with the composition, with every musical and graphic detail being taken care of to create a complete artistic expression. Songs like 'Superior Etruscan Blood', 'Ati Rasna', 'Ratio Diaboli' and 'Le Schiere Di Kali' perfectly exemplify all the elements and resources used throughout the album and can be enjoyed as a whole or simply as individual songs, evidencing great quality.

Without a doubt, a highly recommended album that I enjoyed a lot and that is already among my favorites of the year within the extreme metal underground, a clear example that there is a higher force that pushes many artists to channel those dark energies through their music. Ave Luxferre!

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Review by Maverick on February 1, 2024.

The formula of Eyes Of Fenris’ The House Of Hades is an thematically interesting one, but the execution in terms of music is simply standard. Of course, musically it is not terrible, but it reminds me of the “metalcore without breakdowns” melo-death camp that seems to have been gaining traction in the 2010s, like Nightrage, myGRAIN, and the Unguided. Now, with that said, it sort of puts the band in a precarious position once one can digest the first two tracks. This is not to say that it is a terrible album, but only that this kind of melo-death music has already been tried and that it has been worn out. This would make for an incredible live show, but not necessarily a groundbreaking extreme metal album. Let me break it down:

First, the riffs are what one would expect from All That Remains (minus the breakdowns), and at times it throws some brutal death flare in there. I suppose this formulaic attempt is probably to balance it out, or maybe to sound more brutal – in which case it only sort of waters down the cohesiveness and unity of the album. 'Cerberus' for example sounded like something one would get on a standard brutal death metal album. The riffing on this album is for the most part just a hodgepodge of metalcore and melo-death riffs. The track that should get praise is 'The Pit Of Tartarus' which has a lot of catchy moments, complex riffing and melodic-psychedelic type riffs—I am not sure why there was not more of this in the album.

Second, the drumming is standard too. I mean there really is not much to say about it. It was yet again formulaic, nothing that no one has ever tried. However, as I noted before 'The Pit Of Tartarus' was a pretty good song, and here the drummer does pummel his heart out – blast beating, punishing, and epic. It’s just a shame that this isn’t the consistent delivery throughout the album.

Third, the vocalist is pretty good, but his execution again sounded like something that I was a bit confused about. In 'Set Them Ablaze' for example, it does not seem like the vocals really correspond to the speed of the riffs. It reminds me of Nightrage’s "Insidious" album, but it was somewhat slower and out of sync; it’s only like 3 minutes into the song where it feels like the vocalist starts picking himself up in terms of speed and energy. Albeit I will admit that it might be the instrumentation that creates that impression. The fact that this confuses me kind of backs up what I said initially – that this is an inconsistent album. One is constantly second-guessing themselves when listening, it’s like – dude please stop trying to be a mathcore band, you do not have the genre-license to run roughshod on your musical execution. Come on dudes!

Finally, there are just so many brilliant moments here as much as there are inconsistencies and atrocities. This balances the album out of course but does not make me want to listen to it again. Modern metal is replete with bands that do the same things, and for crying out loud, with a band like this – with such raw talent and power, one would necessarily expect this to be some kind of demo. In the words of Andy Bernard, from the Office (US), they “schruted” it in terms of finishing this album off. This is quite disappointing, but maybe someone listens to this and enjoys it. The monotone unity of the album, however, condemns them, and on a thematic note – this album is probably going to put my patience in the House of Hades. A decent album, but it’s just a bit all over the place.

Rating: 7 out of 10