My premonitions with Germans Unlight did not betray me. Kicking around for a while, but signed to Massacre, the label not really known for the most innovative or underground black metal acts, their moniker too obvious, their faces so familiarly painted, Sulphurblooded is an epitome of clean professional black metal. This is the music that bears all attributes of the proper black metal yet completely fails to capture the devious rebellious individualistic spirit of the genre.

Albums like Sulphurblooded are always extremely difficult for me to judge. On one hand, I have little negative to say about Unlight’s latest creation. The album is evidence to competence and ability of the band’s members. They use their guitars to play riffs, melodies and rather complicated rising/falling arpeggios, Dead All Thing Will Be (Part I), not just to grate ears. Their melodic death/thrash nature of riffs brings out Dissection, Witchery and even Kreator (title track), and sometimes has interesting twist to them (do I hear Moscow Nights in Sic Transit Gloria Mundi?) There is variety in these songs. Dead All Thing Will Be (Part II) is doomy and preachy, with strumming guitars, By the Seventh Spell - A Blackthrash Symphony roars away, as if on steroids, the ending melodies of Invictus and flowing solo of Sic Transit Gloria Mundi are just as captivating as the Pale Rider - Pale Horse is pummeling after another mid-way melodic indulgence.

Sure, I could be sitting here trying to cherry pick the better moments of the album, trying to make the case for Sulphurblooded. Yet, the bottom line to this – it simply fails to excite me, precisely because of its sterility and cleanliness. Thrashiness of Witchery, melodies of Lord Belial and middle-of-the-road brutality of Marduk and Dark Funeral on their day off – it simply does not a good album make.

Before embarking on this review I have promised myself to get through the album several times without interruption. All it did was put me behind the 8-ball in terms of timing with all of the other listening I had to do. Noticing the individual positives in the songs never really translated into cohesive positive impression. If you want to hear Dark Funeral Jr., with breathed out vocals, blasphemous (on paper) lyrics, and periodically going into syncopated hammer-on-anvil death metal approach to emphasize viciousness (Become an Opponent), you are more than welcome to check out Unlight. I am sure every CD comes in with a souvenir bullet belt you can showcase as your black metal fanship attribute.