Totuuden Ikuinen \u00c4\u00e4ni by The Crescent<\/a><\/iframe><\/div>\nThe Crescent’s<\/strong> journey dates back to 1995, when Viktor Folghdraki and Wrath of True Black Dawn<\/strong> to form Enochian Crescent<\/strong> that would later develop from it’s relatively humble origins to a progressive, hook-laden form of black metal. In 2012, Wrath decided to focus on other projects, and the remaining line-up with new vocalist Tuonenjoki of Desolate Shrine<\/strong> fame, continued under the shortened name The Crescent, to honor Viktor’s and Wrath’s agreement that Enochian Crescent could never exist without the two of them together.<\/p>\nAfter releasing Risti<\/em> the following year, the band seemed to fall into a comatose state, eventually arising in 2016 with all kinds of announcements and accusations. Someone had left the band, someone had fired everyone else in the band, someone had no interest in band activity, and so forth, the drama goes on and makes for good headlines, but is of little consequence at the end. What it means that The Crescent has joined the ever-growing group of two separate line-ups with the same name. The one at hand today, is the line-up featuring every original member of The Crescent, sans Viktor.<\/p>\nWhile it does feel odd to have the band call themselves The Crescent without Viktor – one of the two founders of the band’s original incarnation, it is to be remembered that besides no one here being a new member, everyone apart from Tuonenjoki were already members of Enochian Crescent, some taking part in the songwriting as well.<\/p>\n
By and large, Risti<\/em> was not a great album, though not without it’s moments, so I would say I was fairly eager to see another take on the formula, with a change of balance in the songwriting duties. Chiefly, the songs are aggressive, melodic black metal. Tuonenjoki is a very capable vocalist, and Totuuden Ikuinen \u00c4\u00e4ni<\/em> sounds fairly good, plus you’re always going to get points from me for not singing in English, unless your lyrics are super awkward, which they aren’t here, and the songs are as pleasant in the sense that black metal can be pleasant, which is enough to elevate the EP from mere decency. But mostly, the riffs aren’t particularly memorable, well enough when the record’s playing but impossible to relate to after it’s gone, and never strong enough to pluck on heartstrings for any longer period. Which is a shame, since there’s clear potency here.<\/p>\nIn a way Totuuden Ikuinen \u00c4\u00e4ni<\/em> strips The Crescent of their previous, supposedly prog-like tendencies, sing-along radio hits a’la “Lilitu” and flirtation with extra-marital influences for a more focused sound. Which is all fine and dandy, because although Enochian Cresent had made good use of them, Risti<\/em> mostly stumbled whenever it tried to play to them. On the other hand, now a much more one-note ensemble, the highlights have a tougher time shining through.<\/p>\nOnly “Pime\u00e4\u00e4n Merkitty” with a particularly nasty-sounding riff and surprisingly resolute, clean-sung chorus makes a more lasting impression, standing head and shoulders above the rest. Then there’s the closing title track, which has been, by some others, likened to gothic power ballads. To me, it doesn’t really stand so different from the rest. It’s a slower burning track with serene female vocals leading towards it’s climax. The last album’s – also closing – title track is both the closest point of reference, as well as closer to the initial comparison than “Totuuden Ikuinen \u00c4\u00e4ni”. But at eight minutes, most of which go nowhere and feature no build-up whatsoever, it’s quick to lose it’s steam, long before the aforementioned vocals by Hanna Sirola make an appearance. Decent EP that’ll serve to get the band’s name out there again, but does little else.<\/p>\n
\n* Or a fucking Nightbringer-lite, of all things possible, gawddamn.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We’ve got black metal for you, from all over the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":93529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12,403,70],"tags":[3928,9928,2421,14808,10214,9927,14810,4758,14809,14857,14856,575,13724,6973,4761,3679],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/7777lvc-1.jpg?fit=960%2C579&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93164"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93164"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93672,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93164\/revisions\/93672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}