Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Sometimes ambient black metal has trouble finding a great balance between the ambient side of the music and the black metal portion; you usually get too much of one style and not enough of the other. But with 'Catharsis', Parados has delivered an album that utilizes both styles to perfection, giving you that blend of serenely beautifuly music that gives way to cold, bleak frontiers of black metal majesty. The quality of both styles on the album are top notch and you can appreciate the musical ability in each aspect of the two different styles. The piano and more ambient pieces are carefully thought-out and emotive while the black metal portions are equally imagined and precise. The ability to meld these two styles together into a perfect blend is very rare and you will be hard pressed to find a better mix than what Parados has created here. So if you like your black metal a little pensive and heavy, then you definitely need to go out and pick this one up.