Antediluvian -vs- Mitochondrion -vs- Aevangelist

I can't say that I've been completely bowled over by the ocean of old school inspired 'black/war/children-of-Incantation' bands that have been flooding the underground for the last few years. Try as I have, there always seems to be some key ingredient that was spaced out during the mixing process. Whatever the case may be, many of these bands lack that one thing that their idols had in spades and that's 'riff charisma'. Sure, they totally have the "blasphemous & evil" thing down pat but when you strip all that away all you have is a handful of lame riffs that I'm pretty sure could have been trumped by a four year old amputee with Down's Syndrome.

I've tried many, many times to get into some of these bands due to the ridiculous amount of hype that surrounds them. I've oft-times wondered if I'm lacking the insight to whatever it is that seems to have everyone else enthralled. Last night, after drinking a few cups of coffee, I decided to once and for all dive into the confines of this new and blackened age.

Without further adieu...

The thing with Antediluvian is, that aside from the vocals there really isn't all that much to lure me in here. The guitar sound is rather on the pussy side of the fence (not a big fan of the jacked up tuning thing) and serves as a puzzling and ultimately awkward contrast to the behemoth slush-monster that is the vocalist. The riffs themselves are somewhat reminiscent of black metal, particularly those that are "strummed" or plucked, rather, in an attempt at being "avant-garde" or whatever the fuck which to me is just about as gay as gay can be. The fact of the matter is that, despite the technique these riffs are being manufactured through, the end result is totally fucking bland and serves more as a vehicle to annoy rather than enlighten.

When listening to Aevangelist I was extremely bummed when I realized that beneath the mass of  screaming souls lies a boring and sub-standard riff-sequence that sounds completely out of place. It really sucks because I actually like when bands use effects to accompany the more traditional usage of guitar/drums/bass. It seems like more time was invested in the use of effects rather than writing cool riffs. Again, the riffs just are not here. With all the praise these two bands have garnished I'm beginning to think that the government poisoned the drinking water with dum-dum juice.

The vocals are so-so. They don't outright suck but they aren't so great as to deviate me from the realization that I am in the midst of a rather ho-hum affair when listening to Aevangelist.

While I wouldn't say that everything going on with them is award winning, Mitochondrion makes it a bit more difficult for me to find fault with. The vocals are of the low-end/brute force variety and the riffs are plentiful and mighty with only a mere handful being tossed into the pot labeled 'I could do without'.

Overall, there's nothing wrong with all of these bands doing what they're doing. I mean, I'd rather see that than an influx of crunkcore or something as equally demeaning.