Legatum

Legatum is a hybrid of craft like black metal and gorefest doom / death metal. The drums are ultra fast, traditional black metal style drums, focusing on bass drum and snare, rather than high hats, which in some ways makes them a bit forgettable and discreet. The guitars have similar accents to those found in craft's music, which craft overused to begin with. But to break up what sounds like riffs stolen from craft (sometimes I doubt that its just the style that's being mimicked) legatum interjects gorefest style doomy death metal style riffs into what I presume are the choruses (hard to tell with these genres). And finally, the vocals seem to meet in the middle of a gorefest type bark and a craft like raspy black metal scream. The second two songs of the four that seemed to be a the truly original tracks, in particular, "the spirit of satan". The vocals are harsh, pissed off, and well done on this song. The drum kit is all used; and the guitar is just phenomenal, pretty much mastering the doom metal schematic. The bass reverberates in the background, almost echoing the guitar. The best part about this song is that it feels like it lacks a conventional structure, and sounds like a progressive thing, and it warrants the time to listen to it, unlike the seven minute "baptized in pigs blood". The final song "Cold whispers and tormented souls" almost sounds like "Spirit of Satan" although the craft influences are much more blatant, but the heavier sections seem to drop the gorefest sound in favor of something a bit faster and intense, with some awesome riffs on the bass. If you already own anything by craft, you can skip the first two songs, which just sound like ANOTHER, somewhat boring, craft song, but the second two songs are not to be missed. As is typical for black metal, the production quality is pretty poor, and Legatum could benefit from reducing the hissing noise in the background. 

8.75/10

http://www.myspace.com/agramonband