Sweden’s, one man, Raw Atmospheric Black Metal band Rohtang began their journey back in 2020 and in 2021 they put out three separate releases. One demo, ‘As Malice Lurk In The Shadows’ and two EPs, ‘Stone Of Blood And Ash’ and ‘Entering The Gate Of Malevolent Darkness’ which we are covering here. After that, nothing more to speak of but let us first delve further into this EP here and see if we would even want to have more material from Rohtang going forward.
And honestly I am kind of stuck in the middle of my own opinion of this EP here. Stuck between liking this thing for what it is and what potential there is there but also stuck on a few, not major but definitely not minor either, things that I do not like at all. What I do like is the Burzum meets Drudkh vibe they have. Plus the songwriting, the old school buzzsaw guitars, the raw feel. For the most part, pretty much most of it. And what I do not like is the prominance and the tone used for the keys, I understand the desire for old, retro Black Metal key tones but sometimes, and most definitely this time, they sound like a cheap old Casio keyboard, not pleasant. Especially when so far forward in the mix. Also at times there are bass notes that just clip the whole mix out, it is really evident in headphones.
All that being said I am still stuck in the middle with this EP. I mean, I really do like it but I also do not, major/minor issues like those keys can kill a band for me. Final verdict; it’s pretty good. That’s about as far as I can go with that. Do I wanna hear more from Rohtang in the future? Sure, it’s all there. Just gotta fine tune it a bit.
