The Old King is the debut EP from American blackened death metallers Škan and whilst it’s a good starting point for the outfit, there’s also some room for improvement.
The EP is a decent listen and won’t leave you recoiling in horror, but you also won’t find any surprises in it – for the most part, it is just your standard blackened death metal so it’s difficult to set Škan apart from the crowd. The Old King is good, and features very powerful vocals atop of deliciously heavy instrumentation, but the music itself just isn’t that adventurous and it feels like Škan have played things safe rather than create something that will get themselves noticed.
That doesn’t mean that The Old King is a write-off or that it isn’t worthy of your attention – despite its shortcomings, it’s a great listen and will get your head banging and your foot tapping. There’s a lot of potential within the three tracks, such as the slightly doomy edge to closing track The Eye and the guitar solo in Beyond Thrones is something to behold.
Škan certainly have the ability to go far in the industry – but only time will tell if they reach their full potential.
5.5/10
