Lo-Ruhamah: The Glory of God (2007) Review

Let's see if you can answer a basic SAT analogy-type question: Opeth is to death metal as ______________ is to black metal.

Give up? The answer is Lo-Ruhamah, out of Kansas City, Missouri. Their sophomore effort, The Glory of God was released in 2007, and though it's on a rather small independent label, the release could be at home on any number of major metal labels.

The style is innovative, combining elements of progressive, death, and post-metal with a solid core of black metal in the Norwegian tradition. There is some melodic singing in here, and a few melodic passages, but as with Opeth this merely serves to make the scary parts that much scarier. Mostly, however, the vocals are in a pure black metal rasp, with a peppering of death growls.

Not only is it written and performed well, but the production is also impressive. It's definitely clear, with a solid mixing job--You can actually hear the bass through the whole album. But the recording is not so flawless that it loses the black metal aesthetic; I think they hit the sweet spot as far as that goes.

This band is definitely one to watch out for, although I don't think they'll ever be getting much mainstream or even secular attention, given their Christian world-view. But if you don't believe my assessment, read this review.

In all, I give it 5 out of 5 stars.