Paths in the Snow Review

Band	Cast in Stone
Album	Paths in the Snow
Type	Demo
Released	March 16, 2011
Genres	Black Metal
Length	15:53

Reviewer :  KaroshiMetal         Rating :  70 / 100

After discovering and purchasing a copy of this demo, I wasn't expecting much as it has been officially classified as a short demo. And after going through the listening experience, my expectations of it remained the same as it's very much a raw release with a very standard quality to it. Anyone who is a fan of black metal shouldn't be expecting much out of this demo in terms of production and instrumentation quality, but it still has it's potentials of being a worthy demo in the raw community.

"Paths in the Snow" is the sole limited release by Cast In Stone, containing 4 tracks of 16 minutes in total. When it comes to musical inspiration, the best way to describe this demo's sound is it has a similar style to early Enslaved, Aesir, and maybe a bit of Darkthrone in some parts. Each of the four tracks start off with the effect of the guitar feedback for a quick short moment while the guitar work itself has simple riffing and tremolos that maintains a steady tempo as the drum work delivers it's own share of steady yet repetitive snare beats with cymbal crashes alongside until the third track where one can easily hear the increase of the guitar riff's tempo and so on. At this point, the guitar features a specific melody pattern that somewhat resembles bands like Drowning The Light and Satanic Warmaster. The vocals themselves are also heavily buried underneath the instrumentation work, so it can sometimes be hard to hear. But this is not always the case, as the demo also features a weird audio issue. Based on my own copy of this demo, the quality can start off as having a raw dirty production until it suddenly gives itself a somewhat cleaner quality, thus giving the guitar and drum works a louder sound as well as making the vocals more easier to hear. And for a couple moments, the listener may also suffer from issues with the panning as the sound may suddenly pan over to their left or right ears rather than maintaining itself for both ears. It's very hard to tell if this was an intentional move by the band themselves, but it wouldn't be too much of a surprise it that's truly the case.

Now the vocals themselves have a low yet deathly-like style while maintaining raspy croaks that greatly resembles the vocals of Entsetzlich. It can be a somewhat effective choice based on the musical style this band seemed to be going for. But unlike Entsetzlich, Cast In Stone's theme seem to revolve around Nature based on the song titles alone such as "May Her Branches be Reborn", "Paths in the Snow" and "From the Mother's Claws". At one point if one listens closely enough with headphones during the fourth track, the listener can even hear the vocalist say the word "nature". As such, some fans may or possibly may not view this vocal style as unfitting for the overall theme depending on their personal mood.

"Paths in the Snow" is a simple yet filthy produced demo that has nothing too special about it. With the low production along with it's simple repetitive riffs and weird audio issues, it can be seen as having it's ups and downs. But it can overall and possibly make fans of raw black metal have this entire demo on repeat due to containing a very specific raw sound and melody that makes it as old school as one can possibly get.