Upon listening to the opening of the album for the first time, discerning ears will detect that this isn’t black metal at all. Better described as power metal, it has an epic feel with undertones of folk metal, akin to Primordial. The vocals are weak and lack depth – a throaty roar instead of guttural screams and high pitched howls further implement that this band have been sorted into the wrong house (or genre, if you want to be pedantic about it).  Taking an ample eight minutes to unfold and work its epic magic on the listener, second track 'Blame' positively shines. Redeeming moment aside, however, 'Broken' amounts to little more than average, oftentimes exceptionally dull listening. 

Above all, don’t buy into the “well, there are two of them, so it’s not a bad effort” school of thought. Look at the likes of Darkthrone and what they have achieved with just two band members. And they didn’t take thirteen years to perfect their sound.

Reviewed by Angela Davey
Broken is out now on Inverse.

You’ll like this if… you find proper black metal too much to cope with.