Sympathy is the solo project of the Canadian Dharok and was founded in the early 1990’s. Dharok’s Sympathy previously released two full-length albums (Arrogance And Ignorance and Age Of Darkness) as well as two demos (Covenant and Realms Of Chaos). Now, after six long years of silence since Sympathy’s last demo Realms Of Chaos, Dharok and Sympathy have returned with a new album entitled Invocation.

The music on Invocation is predominantly death metal with some black metal influences. It is furious, ferocious and aggressive with grunting vocals. Sympathy has been compared to Dimmu Borgir and Immolation, but the music is definitely a whole lot more Immolation than Dimmu Borgir. The only song that is truly black metal oriented is the very short “Immolation Of The Dragon”. Melodic black metal influences are limited to background keyboards, which have only a minor role and are pushed far into the background. The monotone keyboard melodies are very simple and have little to offer apart from adding an element of atmosphere to the music.

The only two exceptions are the instrumental “Prelude And Toccata In E Minor” and the ambient “Christus Factus Est”, which feature female vocals. Both songs however don’t really fit on the album that mainly consists of ferocious death metal songs.

As is the case in almost all solo projects, Sympathy uses a drum computer and even though it has been very well programmed it nevertheless sounds clinical. Dhorak’s guitar riffs are technical and fast but somehow leave an icy cold impression that only gets accentuated by the clinical pounding of the drum computer and the monotone background keyboards. Nevertheless it must be said that the guitar riffs are of a very high level and the songs contain the necessary hooks and lead breaks to be interesting. Too bad it comes in such a clinical package that might repel many fans of the genre.