MY GUARDIAN ANGER

"My Guardian Anger" is the third full-length studio album by Polish black metal act Lux Occulta. The album was released through Pagan Records in November 1999. It´s the successor to "Dionysos" from November 1997. On this release Lux Occulta have been joined by the two Decapitated members Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka (lead guitars) and Martin Rygiel (bass). This was before the release of Decapitated´s debut full-length studio album "Winds of Creation" (released in April 2000). Kiełtyka was only 18 years old and Rygiel 16 years old when they recorded their parts for "My Guardian Anger".

Stylistically the material on "My Guardian Anger" is symphonic black metal, but it´s quite different from the symphonic black metal style found on the two preceding Lux Occulta album releases. Lux Occulta have opted for a much heavier, riff oriented, and varied black/death metal style to be the basis of the music while the symphonic keyboards add texture on top along with the snarling black metal vocals and occasional death metal growling. It´s quite busy music and the soundscape is often chaotic and furiously fast-paced and blasting. There´s also a progressive edge to the songwriting and "My Guardian Anger" contains just about everything the first two albums didn´t...

...professional sound production values, intriguing and varied compositions, and above all high level musicianship. It´s not that you´ll find much here that you haven´t heard other symphonic black metal bands bring to the table, but the flawless performances and the creative songwriting make up for a lot of that. "My Guardian Anger" is a high quality release from Lux Occulta and to my ears it feels like a rebirth of the band after the first two relatively anonymous albums. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).