Kingdom Of Salvation - Into The Black Horizon (2012) - A progressive take on diverse Extreme Metal genres - 85% (16/08/12)

Six years have passed since the band's quite respectable debut record "Lost In Chaos" that offered a good mixture of Melodic Death and Thrash Metal. Since then, Kingdom Of Salvation recorded several promos and had some minor line-up changes. Now, they are back in full strength with a professional recording that is mostly composed of the last promo tracks. If we take a closer look on the tracks, one realizes that the songs have become much longer than before. While the debut record was based on rather short, energizing and catchy tracks such as "Flames Of Revenge" or "Crusader", this release offers a more progressive vein of the Melodic Death Metal genre and many hints at other Extreme Metal variations.

By listening to this release, one recognizes the time the band put into the longer tracks that are atmospheric and especially a big step forward from a technical point of view. The three shorter tracks fall a little bit off the edge though like the too generic "Triumph Of Deceit" or the fist pumping Thrash Metal neckbreaker "Neverending" that sounds a little bit like a Kreator rehash. Only "I Am War" for which a video clip has been made to support the album is a solid song and mixes technical parts with catchy moments. It's the best choice for a single and this kind of lighter and more accessible track simply feels fresh next to the more challenging material.

Concerning the longer tracks, the opener "We Are The Dead" kicks off with a short and melodic introduction that is some sort of calm before the storm. The good thing about the track is that it has an epic feeling and many melodic mid tempo parts with some Thrash and even Heavy Metal riffs. It's a good choice as an opener as this more laid back but never boring track broadcasts the band's technical abilities. This song is definitely not too challenging as an opener. The song is even quite catchy in the end as the same melodies always come back with slight changes and the simplistic chorus is also gripping enough to stay on your mind. It's not an excellent song because it's a little bit too repetitive and long towards the end and because a truly emotional part is missing throughout the track but it's a more than just well done opener.

The next epic song is called "The Glorious Humanity" and is of course an ironically inspired title as it's rather a song about the evil that men do. It has an addicting slow and somewhat discordant introduction reminding me of the Doom Metal that sounds quite promising. Sadly, the track contains some fast bashing old school Death Metal parts that don't fit to the great opening minutes and destroy the atmosphere the band progressively built up. That's why this epic is the weakest one among the three. Concerning all the five songs I have described in detail, this record would be worth something around seventy-five percent.

But don't worry as the closing title track is a stunning finish and probably even the best song the band has ever released. Kingdom Of Salvation had already published a different version of the track five years ago but since then, the band has analyzed the track over and over again as it seams and experimented with many small changes. This working progress led to the final masterpiece we have here. The song almost touches every intriguing Metal genre the band cares about. The opening is truly atmospheric and has some slight symphonic influences. The beginning is quite slow and shows once again some Doom Metal influences while the overall feeling can even be described as a sort of apocalyptic Gothic Metal. What follows are gripping Thrash Metal parts, truly emotionally performed Death Metal vocals and also calmer parts that give the listener time to digest the track and dig deeper into its magnificiently elaborated structure. This track is simply one of the best epic tracks I have heard in a long time and any fan of the harder metal genres should try this track out. There really isn't much to argue about this song and despite its long running time it has no important lengths. This is the kind of song a band probably just writes once in a career. Just this title track is worth the purchase of the record and easily adds ten points to the final rating.

In the end, I liked "Lost In Chaos" quite a lot because there were many catchy and gripping short tracks to discover that also worked very well on stage. But "Into The Black Horizon" is nevertheless clearly superior to the previous release because it has some very good tracks with "We Are The Dead" and "I Am War" that are as good as the best tracks from the debut and then there is this beast of a killer song at the end of the record. This track is worth a top rating and there is no valuable excuse for you to miss this. That's why my final rating of the second output is higher than the note I gave to the band's first release. I might listen to the first release more often but if I give this new album a spin, I really take the time to focus on it and appreciate its atmosphere. Both albums are quite different as I explained before and they complete each other more than well. This band has plenty of talent and should get more attention in the whole wide world. This kind of bands are the reason why I write all these reviews. I discover something really exciting and the band gets some well deserved promotion. In the end, everybody wins and I hope to hear more of this great material quite soon coming from Kingdom Of Salvation that hail from my German home town Leverkusen which even makes me a very little bit proud.