I was looking forward to see THE STONE earlier this year, when they where booked as support for the 1349 tour, which unfortunately had to be cancelled. And after listening to their newest opus Magla, meanwhile their fourth full length release, I’m really pissed that I did not see them.
The first three albums were already above the black metal average, but so far, Magla is their masterpiece.
By combining modern black metal riffing with old school, mostly blasting drumming and some death metal guitar work, THE STONE have created six great songs. The atmosphere constantly changes between melancholic and depressive parts (often using monotonous repetitions somehow similar to what Endstille do to create an ambience of despair), melodic scenes with here and there very unusual, yet great guitar work and old school hateful aggressiveness. Compared to other black metal albums, Magla may at times even appear too melodic, but with passages like the middle of The Plague (Silent Melody Of The Choir Of The Dead), one gets disabused. Although there is only one song below six minutes while the two longest are around ten minutes, there is never a danger of getting bored by Magla. Even after listening to this one a few times, one will still find some stunning riff, some striking melodic line or here and there astonishing playful hooklines like at the end of As The Destruction Of Inevitable Is Coming Forth.
Not to forget the mostly excellent powerful production, with nicely defined guitars and drums. But here is also one thing I did not like that much: The voice of front man Nefas should have been pushed to the foreground a bit more, as he sometimes can hardly be heard within the dense sound created by the other band members.
At all, Magla is highly recommended to any fan of extreme Metal!