Book Of Black Earth - The Cold Testament (2011)

1. Weight Of The World
2. Cross Contamination
3. Antarctica			play
4. Irritating Spectre
5. Termination
6. Research And Destroy
7. Road Dogs From Hell	      play
8. I See Demons

Musicians:
Ricky Way - Bass
Joe Axler - Drums
Rob Beebe - Guitars, Vocals
TJ Cowgill - Vocals, Guitar

Book of Black Earth is supposedly a blackened death metal band, but you wouldn't be able to tell by listening to this album, "The Cold Testament" While all the black metal elements are still there, the death metal seems to have been swapped out with cues from hardcore and/or metalcore bands - i.e. metalcore "singing", a breakdown, etc. Another reviewer called this album deathcore, I'd say it's more like "blackcore" or something along those lines.

I also agree that this isn't a great album by any means, but I'd say that it still has a quite a bit going for it. "Weight of the World" is a very strong opener that almost hits blackened death territory. It's got quite a good riff selection and conjures up a nice atmosphere of being trapped in a desolate icy wasteland, seeking out the old gods. After the distraction that is "Cross Contamination", we go back to that with "Antarctica" and "Irritating Spectre". The rest of the tracks veer off into a black metal and metalcore hybrid, which completely disrupts the follow that the first half of the album maintained. There are a few more good moments on the second half, such as the interlude in "Research and Destroy" and the intro to "I See Demons", but they are only moments. Substituting metalcore elements into these songs mainly distracts the listener instead of adding to the music.

In the end, I'm confused about what kind of sound this band wanted to present on this album. Is this supposed to be blackened death metal, blackcore, both, or neither? Individually, the songs are all solid in their respective genre, but they make no sense mixed together as they are. I would like to rate this higher, but can't. ---mystickenji, metal-archives.com

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