The Firstborn

The Unclenching Of Fists
ProCon Media

9/10 - A fresh, exotic perspective of the black-death world we all know and love

13 tracks, 59:51 running time.

More and more these days, I find that there are bands who take the phrase "pushing the envelope" to new heights, in both lyrical, and musical terms. The Firstborn is one such band. On this, their third full-length album, these Black-Death Metal kings of the Portuguese scene have taken a truly adventurous approach to crafting music. Deciding to create a concept album not only presents its own unique challenges, but also doing so in the style that The Firstborn have, presents even more challenges. The Unclenching Of Fists is a concept album that is lyrically based on Tantric Buddhism and the Bardo Thödol (the Tibetan 'book of the dead'). To add a more unique feeling of atmosphere and relevance to the content, the band has also decided to add many elements of Indo-Chinese music as well as Buddhist chanting; a truly unique endeavour, by any means.

Musically, The Firstborn display a maturity on this album reminiscent of that shown by the late, great, Emperor on Prometheus. Complex, and weaving in and out of fierceness and exotic soundscapes, The Unclenching Of Fists does not peg itself down into a specific sound that could get tiring, but stays interesting, and finds the band achieving a heavy, yet elegant and unique mixture of black metal and death metal. Definitely a very cool listen for anyone interested in redefining the boundaries of metal.


Ryan Sequeira