Earth Blood Magic: Kontinuum

The majority of Kontinuum’s Candlelight Records debut, ‘Earth Blood Magic,’ feels painstakingly familiar. The first three tracks pass without any bearing on memory. On paper the marriage between choral, avant-garde folk metal with traditional doom sounds exciting, yet on record it falls short of anything spectacular.
On “Stranger Air,” there’s a sense of confidence and maturity in the track’s patient roll. There’s air on the track and it creates for beautiful atmosphere, both delicate and earnest. However, after this brief detour into expressive songwriting, the album returns to its humdrum ways.
The album is entertaining in parts—the progressive black-metal of “Lightbearer,” the guitar work on “Lýs Milda Ljós”—but it rarely takes the next step to engage completely. Not only that, you get the feeling Kontinuum felt comfortable not taking that step, maintaining control but never straying from the path it set for itself. “Risk” and “emotion” are not words I would associate with Kontinuum’s effort here, rendering it dull.