Rating: 7.3

Country: Finland

Release Date: 2005

Track list:
1. The Mailed Fist
2. Bringer Of Victories
3. Our Wrath Shall Dominate
4. Fenrir Unbound
5. Lightning Hammer Falls
6. He Has Horns
7. Resurrection Of The Gods Of War

Band Website: Uncreation's Dawn

Uncreation's Dawn - Lightning Hammer Falls

Sadisst - Guitars
Diabolik - Vocals
Hellwind Inferion - Drums
Thunderer - Bass

Having read reviews that likened this Finnish band to ‘'a bastardization of Deströyer 666 and Grand Belial's Key”, I had VERY high hopes for this sophomore platter, hopes that were largely fulfilled/satiated by a sound that is quite aptly summated by ‘'Deströyer 666 meets Grand Belial's Key”. For the most part, we are greeted with the whirlwind rhythms and attention-deficient thrashy riff flinging of Deströyer 666, as well as the more pronounced, elaborately expressed, martial mid-paced sections and melodic sensitivity of Grand Belial's Key/Arghoslent. What this all amounts to is a very warlike, violent strain of blackened metal that successfully merges two seemingly disparate, but similarly minded (as in FUKKING METAL!) strains of metal into one cohesive, infectious whole.

The formula employed here is largely consistent throughout the record- lots of rhythmic, thrashy, insistent riffing alternating with nebulous tremolo picking, hyperactive blasts/snare hitting shifting into unexpectedly elegant, darkly melodic passages. Of course, there are moments where speed and melody co-exist, as in the distinctly GBK flavored “Bringer Of Victories”, which flaunts a trebly, rousing sense of melody that undercuts the hack and slash malevolence of Hellwind Inferion (whose playing, admittedly, isn't all that interesting on this record, even getting a little clumsy in spots). The song shifts between a series of SUBLIME riffs, a mini epic that exhibits a remarkable sense of songcraft for a band so young. Elsewhere, “Our Wrath Shall Dominate” is a malicious maelstrom of sub-Bathory/early Darkthrone riffage and throbbing, enveloping double bass, collapsing into an ornate, introspective section that precedes a charming, unassuming early Countess-esque solo that asserts an idiosyncratic presence on the proceedings.

Admittedly, you'd have to have a high tolerance for blastbeats and trebly melodies in order to sit through the bulk of this record, something that I don't possess in great amounts nowadays. Yet, at the very core of this record is a firmly METAL aesthetic, an iron-hearted righteousness that is heartrendingly reverent of black metal's founding fathers while forging a futuristic, forward-looking vision all their own. Recommended.

September 10th, 2005