You know, it's one thing to find a band that has good ideas that don't come together, it's another when they also have a crippling flaw that makes them unbearable to listen to. Anguis Dei are a Symphonic Black Metal band from Japan, a country known for having a more eclectic approach to the genre when compared to the rest of the world. They seem to be part of a collective of bands called the AAAA due to every band's name starting with the letter A. I really hope they're not comparable to each other outside of that, because this album is the fucking pits.

Musically, this is the kind of Symphonic Black Metal that thinks if you toss enough orchestrations and neoclassical elements, it'll make something compelling. Truth is, it often ends up making your sound cluttered and forgettable, and that's what it does with this album. Most of the riffs are pretty standard tremolo picking, and the symphonic elements feel like they only exist to take up space to cover up the awful drum sound, which has one of the clickiest snares I've heard in a while. That's not to say there's a lack of talent here, because the spots where the paint they throw at the wall sticks are actually really cool, with some killer guitar melodies backed by solid orchestrations and even some lovely piano work that stands out as a highlight of the album. It's a little suspect that my favorite aspect of a Metal album is something that isn't strictly Metal, but these elements alone would be enough to have me interested in another album, because there's enough merit to suggest these guys could make some damn fine music if they tightened up their songwriting.

Unfortunately, this brings me to the vocals, which are absolutely horrendous. Most of it is a nails-on-chalkboard shriek that sounds forced as hell and blares over the rest of the music, but they also include a theatrical tenor that's not bad, but oversells the vocal lines, a ridiculous falsetto that sounds like a mocking impression of a woman seeing a mouse, and an awful, awful slobbery growl that occasionally sounds like a rabid Donald Duck, and I am not exaggerating in the slightest. Any good moment the band conjures is ruined whenever the vocalist opens his mouth and I start hearing the phlegm moving between his teeth, and the way he tries to transition between styles makes it all the more unbearable.

I hate to be this harsh, but this really is a case where the band needs to drop their singer if they ever want to get any better. However, it appears he sings in every other band in the AAAA and has been doing so for years, so I doubt that'll happen anytime soon. Of course, even if the vocals didn't ruin it, Angeist still doesn't have enough good to outweigh how uninteresting it is overall. A wretched album whose wasted potential makes it all the more painful.