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It took me a little more time for this album to sink in than the band's debut album, 2020's Chronicles of a Black Winter. For one thing, it's about 20 minutes longer, so there's a lot more to process, but I also found the vocals here a little too upfront and often found myself thinking, "stop. yelling." ;) Let's just say that the vocals are an acquired taste, a rather screamy style that I found I have to really be in the mood for.

Musically, however, this is pretty cool. Very melodic black metal, yet aggressive and heavy with undeniable influences from plain old straightforward heavy metal, so while things are definitely "black metal", there's a lot of discipline at play and this is definitely not your average raw, chaotic black metal. There's order to the chaos on Sworn to Avenge, but that doesn't prevent it from being aggressive and sometimes kind of depressing and melancholic despite not descending into the slower playing usually associated with those stylings. It's a rollercoaster of "fuck yeah!" and "kill me now" (in sort of a good way). An interesting bit, the first few seconds of "Mistress of Black Thorns" really remind me of the beginning of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" and that gets me every time (the song itself sounds nothing like it).

Bottom line, there's a lot going on on Sworn to Avenge, maybe just a little too much, and it takes several listens to even scratch the surface. If you like black metal that asks you to put in some effort, this will certainly fit that bill.