Charon - Sulphur Seraph (The Achron Principle) (2012)

   By "Sulphur Seraph" Charon unleashed such an extremely heavy album, that's definitely wasn't usual to hear before in the German metal scene, or from European bands in general. The band's first and so far last full-lenght record had such  raw extremity, that could be compared mainly to Incantation influenced American bands like Disma, or to the most exaggerated Australian bands like Impetuous Ritual. In the European scene, maybe Undergang and Putrevore showed up with something comparable, but since Charon's music included black metal influences too, maybe Impetuous Ritual is the closest.

   These black metal influences might be not so clear at first, but as the album goes on, they evolving and taking significant role in defining the sound, which is definitely following mainly death metal tendencies. The  black and death metal themes and greatly composed together, and that's the reason why their influences on the sound could be difficult to distinguish first. The album is all-round unified and even though the rawness of the themes making 'Sulphur Seraph" hard to go into, it's also the main factor of how this unification as a whole is working so well. As a heavily obscure, noisy mass, the main impression is quite devastating, and frequent higher toned short guitar effects providing with the feeling of some extra demoralizing ominous hopelessness, if the main view wasn't be enough dire. The combination of such brutality and heavily down-pulling atmosphere became more common with time in the main scene, partly because of it's impressive effectiveness, and partly to show the most exaggerated aspect of old school styles. This direction needs highly skilled and resourceful musicians, therefore the appearance of similar bands is kinda sporadic. Charon was one of the earliest examples for this in Europe. "Sulphur Seraph" is an excellent album, strongly recommended for the fans of the most inhuman, most extreme forms of musickness.