That’s a bit thick! What Austrian TRISTWOOD serve on their first official long-player (before, they had a self-financed CD and EP) is a mix of harsh-thrashing black metal and heavy EBM/Industrial components. To hell with all that bullshit they sell under the category of electro metal, The Delphic Doctrine is the thing that kicks your ass!

Most time songs range in higher speed areas, what means, that the drum-computer runs in sewing-machine-mode and snare and double-bass thrash in a frantic tempo without any variations. Additionally simple but heavy and effective riffs get rounded off with harsh electro patterns and sounds. Little slowed down passages again offer significantly more variety but melodic parts and breaks one will seek vainly.
Altogether, the electronic component is the one more variable. Here one will find classic EBM structures as in By The Call Of Seth - Invocation Of The God Of Blood And War, almost Neofolk-like fanfares (Chronos) and also a EBM/Industrial thunderstorm (Nemesis - The Cyberstorm) hard as bone. In the category of traditional instruments (guitars, you got it?) there is nothing exciting to report. Solid but not really spectacular fare the listener will get. For black metal riffs are almost too simple, but regarded as being Industrial, monotony might be intended and is ok, especially, since the combination of both aspects shall produce the intended effect…
In this matter the singing must be mentioned, which is – as for me – almost too extreme and arguably shouldn’t be created without electronic support. Anyway, such perverted growls I haven’t heard for a very long time, but it soon turns out to be one-dimensional and gets slightly on nerves. Also the mix isn’t exactly brilliant. The Delphic Doctrine in facts kicks ass badly but the balance and loudness between the different parts they didn’t find. So some of good ideas disappear anywhere in the background, where they hardly can be heard out.

The tracks itself are indeed well done. It seems TRISTWOOD have exactly thought about the structures before, which instrument when and how gets used to create a sound-monster that equally stages the different components. Tracks such as Daedae Taengri, the already mentioned By The Call Of Seth - Invocation Of The God Of Blood And War and the title-track emerge as remarkable wrath-chunks, where headbanging assumes alarming proportions. In the opposite to The Berzerker – the only band I can refer to – The Delphic Doctrine doesn’t sound too overdone (and doesn’t own these extreme techno and gabba leanings, which are ridiculous) but surely overdid their intended heaviness and brutality. Less would have been more to bring the aimed effect to the right development. For now one will just feel blown away, what blows over after several passes. Though, this album still lacks a bit of necessary substance to make this record interesting over the entire running time. It’s a well-done approach (especially, when you need to clean your mind) but more than 7 points I don’t want to rate. But… with a clear tendency upwards.