Metal Underground.com

A Transylvanian Funeral’s self-titled debut album is a very promising black metal odyssey, especially for being a one-man band. Sleepwalker’s traditional black metal is peppered with psychedelic groove and thrash in an amazing way. The different types of music rise and fade creating an ebb and flow within every song. “PWCCA” has a hardcore thrash opening with furious and fuzzy-distortion guitars, but fades into traditional black metal half way through, completely transforming the mood and feel of the song. “Flesh and Dust” is a good example of A Transylvanian Funeral’s versatility: slow and psychedelic.

The instrument that shines through the album is the bass. In every song, Sleepwalker’s bass is not merely something to fill in the bottom notes, but a highly creative instrument with the same importance as the guitars. “Asmoday Unbound,” “Beyond the Veils of Light,” and “Flesh and Dust” are a few notable songs. Sleepwalker is joined by vocalist Sojourner for backup vocals on most songs. Their sickening growls are not very loud, and are actually hard to hear in some songs like “PWCCA,” but it seems to add a creepy feel to the intense music. In “Black Sacrifice,” one vocalist growls as the other speaks the same lyrics.

The guitars in this album are great and varied throughout. They play quick-strum black metal melodies in many songs including “Blood of Seraphs” and “Circle of Disease,” but use different distortions for other songs. One guitar holds a note of feedback in “Black Sacrifice” and never plays a tune. In “Asmoday Unbound,” the psychedelic riffs have a very crunchy distortion. The guitars play an extremely heavy (almost sludgy) breakdown in “Hammer of the Witch.”

A Transylvanian Funeral’s debut album is not pure traditional black metal, but proves that it doesn’t need to be. The addition of psychedelic parts and thrashy guitars make it richer in intensity. The album signs off with an eerie sound clip that says, “Believe me, if I started murdering people, there’d be none of you left.”