Vermin to the Earth 2011

"If you are into dark misanthropic black metal with lots of expressiveness and atmosphere, then Thrall's "Vermin to the Earth" should be right up your alley. The genre defining black elements are there: there are blast beats, there is tremolo picking, there are tense harmonies, there are harsh vocals, and there is the bleak and cold production. In addition to those black metal elements, there are a lot of midtempo and heavy doomy passages, and some passages are almost sort of rock-ish, such as many of the prominent sections of "Oblivion" - and both the rock-ish dimension and the heavy passages work excellently as a contrast to the more traditional black metal elements. Also, Thrall make us of, not avant-garde, but at least progressive-like elements in the form of off time signatures every now and then, and the interesting part is that the odd time signatures are masked with quite raw and primitive guitar figures, which, again, works neatly in creating interesting tensions in the music. "Vermin to the Earth" is a dark, expressive black metal release with a lot of interesting elements, and it should appeal to fans of black metal and perhaps even some non-fans. (review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"