Band:	Keep Of Kalessin
Album:	Armada
Style:	Melodic black metal
Release date:	March 2006

01. Surface
02. Crown Of The Kings
03. The Black Uncharted
04. Vengeance Rising
05. Many Are We
06. Winged Watcher
07. Into The Fire
08. Deluge
09. The Wealth Of Darkness
10. Armada

There is no question in my mind as to why this album was nominee in the Black Metal album of the year category in The Metal Storm Awards 2006. It is rare to find a Black Metal band so unique these days, after it seemed that everything that could be done with Black Metal has been done, Keep Of Kalessin releases "Armada." Before I go any further with this review, this is the only Keep Of Kalessin material Ive heard, so all commentary is NOT based on relativity to any of their other albums.

For those of you who are not familiar with Keep Of Kalessin, the best way I could describe them would be to say if Marduk & Opeth had a child. This album is filled with vicious thrashed-out black metal riffs, intensely fast drum work and torturing screeches, but is also balanced out with more mellow periods with cleanish vocals & incredible acoustic solos. Another notable part is the lyrical content, it's absolutely fantastic, mostly consisting of battle-esque type lyrics that you could picture being sung by a power metal band; instead they fit extremely well with the black metal vocals, giving a very powerful atmosphere to the music that is lacking in the cookie cutter "Hail Satan" type black metal lyrics that many bands seem to be following.

There are also a few problems with the album that may have prevented Keep Of Kalessin from actually receiving the award for Black Metal album of the year (other than the fact that they aren't as well known as some of their competitors). Three tracks come to mind, the first being "Surface" which although is only an intro track it doesn't really build up and fill the listener with anticipation as most intro tracks should do. The second track being "Into The Fire" which by all means is a great black metal song but fails to live up to any other songs on the album as far as stand-out, unique music goes (but oddly enough got chosen for there music video). The third being "Deluge" which is an instrumental track and is by far one of the most boring instrumentals I have heard to date; I was expecting some intense acoustic guitar work but instead got 3 minutes of a boring distorted riff being played over and over. The fourth and final problem with this album is that three of the tracks seem to have close to the identical intro riffs, making the album slightly tedious.

Overall this thrashy prog-like black metal band has put out quite an impressive album, making probably the most unique black metal sound Ive heard in a long time, and is a must have for all people who are even interested in black metal in the slightest