Night on Earth

Dawn of Relic are so obsessed with the creepy fantasy-horror tales of H.P. Lovecraft that their second album was even called Lovecraftian Dark, but as a whole, the Finnish black metal act are neither lyrically eldritch nor musically intriguing enough to own that particular musical association. Instead, Dawn of Relic are a fairly average iteration of the more melodic side of European black metal, the sort of band that leavens the brutal blastbeat drumming, Cookie Monster vocals and unison guitar riffs with '80s-style gothy keyboards and prog folk acoustic guitar interludes. Dawn of Relic do this sort of thing just as well as many other bands do, but with an overall lack of imagination and personality that makes it hard for the listener to get particularly enthusiastic about bloodlessly competent thrash like "Sin Bred City" and "Nemesis."