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Now this one took me by surprise. Deimhal is a sort of Finnish black metal supergroup containing members of luminary acts like Kalmah and Wrathage along with smaller acts like Armada North whose sound is somewhere between Dimmu Borgir and maybe Immortal. That might make this sound generic, but it's far too well composed and played to dismiss it like that, as the grand opener "Alliance of Winter" and "The Serpent King (Dumah-el)" can attest. They even work outside of expected boundaries to make something more epic and novel, like the Moonsorrow-esque "Ikuisen Kuoleman Kaipuu" and the show-stopping album closer "Vengeance of the Night Crows," both of which are first-rate tracks filled with ravenous melodies and menacing symphonics, with the latter even sporting some striking clean singing in the chorus. In a nutshell, The Grand Gathering is a few steps above the average meat-and-potatoes symphonic black metal that makes me look forward to a full length, and odds are it'll make you want more as well. A killer start.