Named after the god who brought fire and wisdom to mankind, PROMETHEUS comes across as a band with a bit of an identity crisis. There are six songs on their long-winded album, and the first three differ quite a bit from the last three. Their sound touches upon crushingly dark death metal, epic black metal and a kind of cosmic ambience. The first three songs are by far the more interesting and punishing.

‘Gravitons Passing Through Yog-Sothoth’ goes for the jugular with a brutal rush of old school death in the vein of early MORBID ANGEL and ABSU. It’s a very pure kind of morbid mayhem, but the twists are soon to arise. The song slows to a lumbering semi-doom pace, which is really Lovecraftian, and then minimal synth adds a surprising spaciness to the music. It makes the music more contemplative. ‘Azathoth’ follows with more dank and dismal death, and then also branches into more atmospheric realms without sacrificing heaviness. The album has really grabbed a hold of me now, but these first two tracks are the best. ‘Astrophobos’ brings death/doom into the equation and for the first time, the faster parts are more reminiscent of classic black metal instead of death metal.

Black metal then becomes the primary style of attack, starting with the title track. For some reason, PROMETHEUS’ more black metal song structures don’t seem nearly as gripping as the more death metal stuff. This song also has a significant drop into calmer waters that doesn’t quite work. The fifth track is something in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet which I will not try to reproduce. It’s the shortest tune by far, and more of a cosmic synth soundscape, which sometimes can be mesmerizing, but this one is just average. The album then concludes with the freezing, high speed black metal of ‘The Crimson Tower Of The Headless God’. This is another song that ends with mild melody and synth soundscapes, a pretty ho-hum conclusion to an album that began with cataclysmic fury.

I appreciate that PROMETHEUS is trying to mix things up, but the PROMETHEUS of the first three songs beats the hell out of the one of the last three tracks.
Review By: Dr. Abner Mality

PROMETHEUS
Resonant Echoes From Cosmos Of Old
I, Voidhanger
3.5 / 6