I am not sure I will be able to explain the reason why I didn’t like this Ep, but my problem is that I really cannot find any interesting elements in here and I cannot explain why. It might just be that each one of these tracks is quite forgettable. Black The Sky is the new band of ex-Lividity drummer Mr. James Whitehurst. And it just plain sounds as if the band was founded somewhere in 1998 or ’99. Last millennium’s end was an year or limbo for Death Metal, slightly before the Internet became popular and the revival of old school Metal begun taking ground. It was the time when bands contemporary to Umbilical Strangulation, Prophecy, Fleshgrind and a score of other similar ones were releasing a huge quantity of really uninteresting demos and albums. A formless breed of a new guttural Death Metal scene which looking hindsight, was appallingly plain (with some exceptions, some bands were actually quite interesting and survived to this day, see Necrotic Disgorgement).  This Black The Sky‘s Ep has a rather good production but other than this – it is terribly flat. This band plays a contaminated form of late nineties American Death Metal and late hour Hard Core with a particular eye towards slow crunches and power metal chugs but also adorned with a form of pervasive new-school HC melody a la Integrity. The vocals are mid-deep and sometimes have higher peaks, but I cannot count really powerful riffs to make my day or even one memorable track. The worse thing is that the vocals just follow the flow of the muted palm riffs and this a scheme that just sound so dreadfully green, not to mention the riffs seem to be cut and paste without a real concept behind. It goes fast now, slow then, repeat twice… not my cup of tea. The voice in the intro that says “Time To Play” is also identical to the one used in Broken Hope‘s “Loathing” album…  I guess it’s from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hm.  I cannot say it’s a bad album becouse in the end there are good ideas and no clear weak spots, but I am afraid the problem is structural. Professional cover art and excellent work of graphics for the booklet and packaging, although I am not particularly enthusiastic about abstract subjects.