Antestor - Omen

What initially caught my eye and piqued my interest in this band was their artwork. Although I had never heard of Antestor before, their album cover featured a piece of art by one of my favorite Polish artists, Zdzislaw Beksinski, titled "The Beautiful Nightmares". However, despite my search, none of the band's websites mentioned this connection.

This band hails from Norway and was formed in 1990. Their musical style is Black Metal. As they are a religious band, my review will only focus on their music. If this is a concern for any readers, then they may choose to move on to the next review.

The album begins with Treacherous Domain, and it's a great start! The production is excellent, and everything is well-balanced, particularly the guitars which sound nice and full. The following track, Unchained, begins with some cool drum fills that remind me of Dimmu Borgir. The song In Solitude is quite similar to the previous track, and "All Towers Must Fall" has a significant Dimmu influence. 

I really enjoyed the clean guitar riffs and the beautiful violin parts in the song "Tilflukt." The album as a whole is quite good, although I couldn't help but be reminded of Dimmu Borgir at times. However, I did feel a bit uneasy about the absence of credit for the artwork creator.

Here's an Update as part of my curating this entire site. I have revised and fixed the band's official site to the only relevant one I could find. The album is still up on Youtube in full for your listening pleasure and is also listed here. I revised a few of my words and made adjustments were necessary.

I will also add here that the Metal Archives Page is listing the band as on hold. I take this meaning to be that they are not done yet and we shall see something from them in the near future.

If interested you can check them out at Antestor bandcamp site