Extol - Extol (CD)

• 2000 Solid State
• Pre-Owned CD in NM cond.
  
• For fans of Opeth

Dive into this album and get ready to have your ears enveloped in a blissful trance of melodious darkness.

The variety in their sound (clean and death/black growls, violins,acoustics etc) is reminicent and in the STYLE of Opeth, but the sound overall really isn't anything like Opeth. The Christianity aspect is only in the lyrics, but these guys aren't cheesy about it. It's not to the "worship God and Jesus and all your dreams with be fulfilled" level. A lot of it is dark sounding and morbid yet complementary to the Christian/Catholic religion.

Most of the songs on this 12 track (11 song) record are good. There are 2 instrumental which I adore. Track 5 "Meadows of Silence" is a gorgeous acoustic interlude which makes me think of nature in Autumn. Track 9 "Where Sleep is Rest" is more an electric guitar anthem ending in acoustic is also amazing. Almost like something Alice in Chains would write - overall a beautiful song.

The rest of the tracks sound mostly like black/death progressive guitar driven nu-metal songs. I say progressive because of the violin work and complex experimental guitar riffs. I say nu-metal because most of the clean singing has a very nu metal sound to it (sometimes like taproot type clean singing, other times like Disturbed). Track 1 is a good album starter, kicking off with guitar, then violin , then both. Track 2 sounds a lot like track 1, also incorporating both guitar and violin work simultaneously. I'd give both songs a 3.5 out of 5. Track 3 is more like this but with an amazing guitar riff lead during the chorus, unfortunately, this chorus is only sung twice and after the 2nd time you might find yourself skipping to the next track because the song kind of drags afterwards. Track 4 "Embers" is the highlight, the best non-instrumental off the album. The clean singing is beautful and hard verses just as good. Track 5 I mentioned earlier. Track 6 "Shelters" is definitly a filler song. There's too much screaming and it's just plain boring. Track 7 and 8 are both great tracks also, incorporating more progressive twin guitar work with very melodic chords and vocals. Track 10 is really where the album ends for me-this track incorporates more gorgeous melodic clean vocals making this probably the 2nd best song off the album. Track 11 "Abandoned" is really a nothing track. Track 12 is really the only black metal sounding song on the album, this one too, is also a little boring.