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Serbian melodic Black/Death Metallers Bane are back with a new album, titled Esoteric Formulae. It's been six years since their second album, The Acausal Fire, was released, which I also liked very much. I once said they are the takers of Swedish Dissection's throne due to a very similar sounding atmosphere that the defunct Swedes managed to capture on their albums.

This latest outing from this Serb clan manages to send some nice, cold chills down my spine once again. Right from the opening track, "The Calling of the Eleven Angles", these guys set the bar of high-standard musicianship, keeping their stuff tightly focused on the kind of melodic Black/Death Metal that once made Dissection one of the greatest pillars of the genre. The band's spirit is still pretty heavily tied up on this album, but not as much as on their other two albums. I can also sense Behemoth's presence on songs like "Wretched Feast (which also has an amazing guitar solo of Giulio Moschini from Hour of Penance)" and "Into Oblivion" that are both a tad more ominous, pompous and darker sounding songs atmosphere-wise than the rest of the stuff on the record. I must believe, however, that Dissection's Reinkaos was their true inspiration here. Songs like "Beneath the Black Earth" and "Reign in Chaos" reek of the dead but not forgotten Swedes' musical legacy, especially "Bringer of Pandimensional Disorder" which obviously wants to be the band's own version from "Starless Aeon". I don't accuse them of any plagiarism or anything, even if some influences seem to stick out frighteningly too well.

You like a melodic and well-structured Black/Death Metal? If so, this album may well be right up your alley.