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This is a Black/Thrash band composed of former members of Belphegor and Keep of Kalessin. I only had a passing interest on the former and none whatsoever in the latter so I was curious on how this album would turn out. Essentially this is Black/Thrash that is well executed but never really separating themselves from the pack. Antares Predator has all the things that you would want: evil riffs, tortured voice and adequate speed but the thing that I noticed the most was the atmosphere provided by the keyboards.

I don't know it that is a trait of those two bands, but when you are doing Black/Thrash, keyboards or synths are the last thing that should be heard. At least, it doesn't happen for the majority of the time but often enough to annoy me. Contrary to most bands of the genre, there is a science fiction theme going on (which is pretty cool) but musically it isn't that much different. There isn't a whole lot of speed except for a couple of spots. There are of course lots of blast beasts, even though it doesn't fit the music or what the band is trying to do. The boring and repetitive songwriting doesn't help things either, if you want a clear example of this, listen to the closing instrumental appropriately titled "Death", it summarizes what this record is about. More importantly, the thing that I really hate the most about Twilight of the Apocalypse is that there are NO guitar solos at all. I am a guy that always felt that the guitar is the most important aspect of metal, so when a band has no leads it greatly disappoints me. Production-wise it is solid but coming from a band of this sub-genre, it sounds too clean and overly polished.

In the end, I wanted to like this album as I am a big fan of the genre, but I after repeated listened I came to the conclusion that this is just mediocre. None of the songs really hit me and after 45 minutes, I felt like nothing happened. Still, if you are a fan of the bands I mentioned above then go ahead give this a shot, you might enjoy it a lot more than I did. For the rest of you, pretend that the album never existed in the first place and you'll be fine.