Antithesis of All Flesh is the full-length debut from Serbia’s Triumfall, who play a very typical form of mostly symphonic and melodic black metal. The band pulls nearly all of their influence from the genre’s Scandinavian originators, but the album suffers from the unfortunate combination of both incredible familiarity and stark inferiority.

The album mixes early Emperor and Dissection with the theatrical keyboard and piano approach used by Dimmu Borgir during the same era, coming so close to the source material that Triumfall would classify as suitable hero worship if they had the songwriting chops to pull it off. They do not. For example, “Omega Overcasts the Presence” features a pleasantly melodic intro and some engaging blackened thrash, but over its seven minute duration, it shows no true sense of dynamics, and most of the interesting parts are repeated to the point of losing the qualities that made them special. The album’s most memorable moment, a plodding mid-point deviation during “The Final Purification,” strays so far away from actual black metal territory that the band might do well to consider a little reverse Darkthrone stylistic shift before penning their sophomore effort. The issues are further exposed by an almost nasal guitar tone (like someone castrated Dismember) and a mix that makes the keyboards appear tacked-on. Also, in a strange development for black metal, there is actually too much bass.

Like so many similar acts, it appears that Triumfall put less time into true creativity than they did their instrumental chops, being noticeably fine-tuned in that department. But in the end, Antithesis of All Flesh is an inferior carbon copy, one that will simply lead to black metal enthusiasts dusting off their copies of In the Nightside Eclipse, Enthrone Darkness Triumphant or Storm of the Light’s Bane to get the genuine article.