ABIGOR - VERWÜSTUNG/INVOKE THE DARK AGE
Abigor's debut album. Most bands put out excellent debut albums, with some great ideas, and this is a case with Abigor too. The songs are not repetitive, and after only a few listens, it is really easy to tell different songs from each other, especially with two short, instrumental, keyboard-based tracks thrown in there (written and performed by Rune [Tharen], Abigor's original vocalist). 9 great Melodic Black Metal tracks from this Austrian trinity. The booklet does not contain lyrics, well it does contain a few lines from each of the songs I think, but there's lots of photos of Peter, Thomas and Silenius - all wearing corpse paint and showing off their collection of medieval weapons (Abigor is my favorite BM band, but I've always hated the entire corpse-paint trend). The vocals are usual black metal screams (sometimes reminding of Burzum - especially on Weeping Midwintertears). Lots of keyboards, and different elements (like people chanting and such) used on the album. Guitars are not loud enough, and at some points they're just too weak - can hardly hear them (especially in the middle of In Sin). Since it's the debut, the production is not the best, so that's the reason for that. However, this album is great, much better and more varied than the last couple of albums, it has a more primitive atmosphere than the later stuff. Highly recommended for any Melodic Black Metal fans! PS. Verwüstung translates to "destruction", "annihilation".
ABIGOR - ORKBLUT-THE RETALIATION
This 25 min. cd is the second release from Abigor. The entire cd is supposed to be one track: "Storming Onwards On Pagan Paths", which deals with a warrior who remembers his Pagan origins and such, and the entire disc is a concept album, following the warrior, from his rise and the rise of his village, to his demise. The cd liner notes explain this a bit better and in more detail. Lots of short songs in here, a couple of them only around 30 or 40 seconds long, but serve as excellent melodic breaks, they give the album a medieval sound and feel, as well as do the keyboards, flutes. The first track - "The Prophecy", has some narration which just puts you in the right mindset for the whole release. One interesting thing I should mention is that Abigor's original singer Rune (Tharen) appears as a guest on the release, and plays keyboards on tracks 3, 7 & 9. Also, the liner notes show some of the band members' views on different cultures and beliefs and such. Anyways, this cd is somewhat similar to Nachthymnen, well, actually more in the vein of Verwüstung (because of the production). Lots of different riffs and song structures - if they were repeated more, this release could've been a real 40 min. album, but it's still good as it is. Some of the song structures and concepts were kinda re-used on Nachthymnen (one of the tracks on this cd sounds very similar to the closing few minutes of Nachthymen). Anyways, this is a great release in my opinion, especially if you like Abigor in the vein of Verwüstung/Nachthymen - then I'd recommend this highly. It is kinda hard to find it, but if you really want it, check eBay from time to time, that's how I found my copy. PS. Orkblut would translate to "orc blood".
ABIGOR - NACHTHYMNEN (FROM THE TWILIGHT KINGDOM)
The first black metal album I have ever heard and it still remains one of my favorites. Abigor also happens to be my favorite black metal band as well, and this was the album that introduced me to Abigor's music. Besides the excellently played guitars, hyper-speed drumming and the usual black metal vocals, this album contains melodic parts with a female singing some of the lines, which works really well to expand the melody - which is already created by the guitars (just listen to the guitar intro on "Dornen"). Anyways, 9 excellent songs - the album works as a whole. It does take a while to get used to Abigor's sound and to get into this album, but if you do it you'll discover a black metal masterpiece. An interesting cover picture, and a nice picture of a castle on the cd itself - along with the tracklist and such. The lyrics are included in the booklet (even though half of them are in German...). The lyrics on this album are excellent, especially songs like Unleashed Axe-Age which deals with Scandinavian mythology (I love lyrics about Ragnarok, Loke, Fenris, etc...), also, another excellent display of lyrics would be on As Astral Images Darken Reality, dealing with astral/out of this world/etc. concept, which is another favorite lyric concept of mine, this concept is also continued on the first half of Opus IV (Horns Lurk Beyond The Stars). There is a couple of photos of Peter, Thomas and Silenius wearing the traditional corpse-paint. When asked about the corpse paint in an interview, Peter responds: "If I wear corpse paint, satanic metamorphosis takes place, it's a kind of ritual which shows our true face. Each individual is a split personality, there's not just 'evil' and not just 'good', one cannot exist without the other, but if one wears corpse paint, the little spark of goodness inside the soul is nearly burned out..." So I guess these guys take the corpse paint pretty seriously. Anyways, this album is highly recommended for any black metal fan, especially fans of melodic black metal. PS. Nachthymnen would translate to "Hymns Of The Night".
ABIGOR - OPUS IV
This album is just two different EPs put together on one cd. "Horns Lurk Beyond The Stars" and "Blot Aus Aeonen". First of all, I see lots of people dislike this realease (probably because it's no Nachthymen Part 2 or anything like that, it is much more aggressive than Nachthymnen, and quite different. I'm glad the band didn't put out another Nachthymnen but decided to move on beyond that.), others on the other hand find this to be Abigor's best album. This release is not as impressive as Nachthymnen, but it is still good. Like I said, much more aggressive sounding, both the guitars and drums, and the songwriting. It might take a while to get used to the sound which has a nice wall of sound, but after a few listens I really started to like this album. There's lots of small details that are really hard to notice at first (especially the guitars/guitar fills in "Mirages For The Eyes Of The Blind" and "The Elder God (My Dragon Magic)" that are hard to notice at the beginning, but when you hear it, it's just great). Also, a flute is used on a couple of songs, and it fits perfectly - I love the intro of "Dimensions Of Thy Unforgiven Sins / 1", it's great! Also, keyboards used in other couple of songs, but are not very loud (not anything like Emperor would do). The booklet is split in two sections, one for each EP, and the lyrics and info, and such are there (including band member's pictures and short messages, that they put on every album). One very interesting thing I noticed is that all of the lyrics for "Horns Lurk Beyond The Stars" were written by Thomas, and all of the lyrics for "Blot Aus Aeonen" were written by Peter. I was surprised to see that, since on all of the albums, the message usually says music and lyrics written by Abigor. I was glad to see this here though, it gave me a perspective and more insight on the info about who wrote which lyrics on Nachthymnen (I can bet it was T.T. who wrote the lyrics for As Astral Images Darken Reality). Lyrics on Opus IV are the usual Abigor lyrics, which I find interesting, especially with the first EP dealing with space/astral aspects and such. A great album, in my opinion.
ABIGOR - APOKALYPSE
"Produced and mixed in a few hours ... for ultimate raw apocalyptic Black Metal listening pleasure exclusively." That tells you something. This 17 minute release is nothing special. Only if you're a die-hard Abigor fan will you want to get this cd. It has 6 songs, which at the beginning all sound the same, it takes quite a while to distinguish from each other. The production and mixing is pretty bad, but that was the purpose behind the release of this. Whereas other bands explored new areas of Black Metal and ventured into different areas, Abigor decided to go back and record an every-day normal Black Metal album. The vocals are much different than on the albums, on this release they are more shouted out, and yelled, than on the other albums. The drum sound is VERY annoying and guitars are still there, quite loud. Some *supposed to look scary* cover artwork (ooh... pentagram and a skull...), lyrics included in the booklet, also with a few pictures of the band members, and the history of Abigor (no, not the band, but the creature which inspired the band to use that name). Like I said, nothing special, it's just like listening to Dark Funeral, or Enthroned, or any one of those basic Black Metal bands. Don't get it unless you really want it, and don't pay too much for it (I got mine for $5 so it's not that bad).
ABIGOR - SUPREME IMMORTAL ART
At first I really disliked this album, however, that did change. I said before that this album is not the peak of Abigor's career, and I stick with that, however, this is a great release. This will especially appeal to fans of Emperor, because of they keyboards and the symphonic moments in the background of almost every one of the songs, however, the keyboards are not as intense as Emperor makes them. The more I listened to this CD the more I liked it. Songs are written very well, every one of them. This is one of the few albums where I absolutely love every minute of the cd! Great intro on Satan In Me, a melancholic feel on Soil Of Souls, the build-up on The Spirit Of Venus, the battle feel on Magic Glass Monument, ... all these things make this album really stand out. The production and the sound on the album is very good, probably as good as on Nachthymnen. Lyrics included in the booklet, along with pictures, both of the band and other pictures. Interesting to see that there's pictures of the band members, without the corpse-paint, for a change. Lyrics are very satanic, which is another downside to this release, because I prefer other type of Abigor's lyrics - the really weird ones. The guitars and vocals are pretty loud, but drums are pretty quiet on this release, which is a good thing in my opinion. Anyways, this is a good (but not the best) representation of Abigor's music, since the release is pretty aggressive (not as aggressive as Apokalypse or Opus IV though) and not as melodic as Nachthymnen.
ABIGOR - ORIGO REGIUM 1993-1994
This is the "Strictly Limited Edition" CD (limited to 1500 copies). It's basically a collection of Abigor's demos from the early days - selected tracks from "Ash Nazgh"/"Lux Devicta Est"/"Promo-tape 2/94"/"Moonrise". Very raw/primitive sounding, as one would expect from such a collection. Quite a few of these songs (and guitar riffs) appear on some of the later albums. The booklet contains some liner notes from the members, about Abigor's history and such, some photos from the early photo-sessions, and Abigor's discography up to date. The music, as I said, is very raw, poorly produced - a typical demo. The vocalist at the time was Rune [Tharen] and he sounds quite different than Silenius or Thurisaz. At times his vocals are very annoying (example, the spoken intro on "Animae Tortae"), however, the music is quite good! It offers glimpses of what Abigor is to become. The guitars already create melodies that are noticable on other Abigor releases (such as Nachthymnen). This collection contains 8 songs, and is about 40 minutes long. It is a great listen. A couple songs have interesting outro riffs, which are re-used later on other albums ("Abysmal Scorn" outro is the intro riffing of "Dornen" on Nachtymnen). Also, it is great to hear the demo version of "Midwintertears" ("Weeping Midwintertears" as it appears on Verwüstung). There's some weird noises/samples on this disc, such as people chanting in background/bells chiming/spoken parts and such... but it is used very good and creates a great atmosphere! Also, some keyboard elements noticable on this release as well. PS. Get this for the "Shadowlord" song, it is excellent, Abigor's earliest work available on a cd. Riffs remind of Slayer/Kreator. Oh yeah, the title "Origo Regium" is Latin, and (I think) it would translate to something like "From the original country" (origo-origin; regio-region, country)
ABIGOR - CHANNELING THE QUINTESSENCE OF SATAN
Silenius has left, and Thurisaz has replaced him (Thurisaz is credited in Nachthymnen too). Vocals, as one would expect, are quite different. They are not as loud, they're pushed back against the guitars, I don't know why, but I think it was a good idea to do so, since I loved Silenius' vocals, and Thurisaz can't come close to his screams. No keyboards here except for the interludes between the songs - which makes the album work as a whole again (like so many Abigor albums). Fast drumming, and fast guitars. One VERY good thing about this album is the guitar sound - throughout the entire album, the guitars have this distinct sound, very cool sounding - kinda medevial/classical sounding, I can't really explain it, but they are really great! The album is 44 or so minutes long, 8 songs (with some great titles). The booklet has some weird pictures of some people and skeletons, I can't really figure it out, but it looks nice. Some lyrics are printed, but it does not say for which songs exactly (I believe they are a couple of lines from every track...). This album is very hard to get into, after many listens, I still have problems remembering the tracks. The release works as a whole (kinda like Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse), but some distinct songs that after a few listens one catches would be "Utopia Consumed", "Towards Beyond" (because of the chorus), and the last track, "Pandora's Miasmic Breath", which is VERY weird - so unlike Abigor. After you hear it, you'll know what I'm talking about... PS. This cd is probably one of the most chaotic/complex albums I've ever heard (some songs contain 3 or 4 different guitars, and with every one of them playing distinctive and complexing riffs, it's really hard to catch).
ABIGOR - IN MEMORY
Yet another MCD by Abigor, these guys just keep on releasing stuff, which is great, since they happen to be my favorite BM band. "In Memory" is a collection of 2 cover tracks and 3 other Abigor rarities. Here's a track by track review of this MCD:
Terrible Certainty - Originally by Kreator. Abigor do a great cover of the song, and improve it (especially the drumming!). A short intro/outro included on this song, which I don't remember appearing on the original version.
Crionics - Originally by Slayer. Excellent! This track makes the CD well worth it. Following a strange intro, Abigor do a ripping version of this great Slayer tune. Vocals are actually clean for the most part, reminding of Tom Araya! Some strange noises/spoken parts towards the end of the song are mixed in, which is a bit odd. Worth mentioning is that the classic Slayer guitar solo is nowhere to be found.
Shadowlord - Not the version from the "Ash Nazgh" demo, but actually re-worked in 1995 for a Napalm compilation disc (With Us Or Against Us Vol. 1). This version is quite differnet from the demo, in fact it's a completely different song. It is very good, with a great mix of screamed black metal vocals and clean melodic chanting all at once (reminds of new Borknagar), especially during the chorus, which I've never heard Abigor utilize in the past. Along with the covers, this is definitely a stand-out.
Crimson Horizons - A rehearsal version of this track (which appears on Opus IV). The production is a bit crappier, since it was recorded on a 4-track recorder, and this version is, of course, not as good as the one on the album. Sound is kinda muddy, the synths sound a bit louder, and the song structure is a bit different, especially towards the end of the song.
Verwüstung - An instrumental rough-mix of this track which appears on Apokalypse. Not much to say about this one, but that it sounds almost exactly as the Apokalypse version (without the vocals, that is).
All in all, if you'd love to hear Abigor's versions of the Kreator and Slayer tunes, or if you're an absolute fanatic of the band, you will want to buy this.
ABIGOR - SATANIZED (A JOURNEY THROUGH COSMIC INFINITY)
"Visualize Fortress Hell!" Abigor are back at it with their tenth cd entitled "Satanized (A Journey Through Cosmic Infinity)". More line-up changes happened, this time Thomas left the band and Moritz Neuner replaced him (Moritz is also involved with a couple of other bands on the Napalm Records label). This does not change much, because the drums are as fast and impressive as they've always been. There is quite a big difference in other aspects, between Channeling The Quintessence Of Satan and Satanized (wow, they really seem to be taking a liking to the word Satan). The production this time is much clearer, and synths are used throughout the songs, not just like on intros/outros as on CTQOS. This is definitely an improvement, and after a number a listens this has proved to be some of Abigor's best work up to date. It is as complex as CTQOS but much easier to get into, thanks to the synths and guitars. First off, the synths are used much more and certainly work to an advantage. Generally they are pushed behind all of the music, but are still noticable (especially on some songs, the synths on "Repulsor" are quite loud, although they're just background music, same goes for "Galaxies And Eons Decline", where at the beginning, the synths sound like wah-wah guitar effect). The lead guitars still retain that clean, sharp and quite loud sound found on most of CTQOS (which is great!). Beside the lead, the rhytm guitars make more of an appearances than before. Almost every song has a nice break, with a very thrashy, catchy rhytm. Even though they don't last for too long, they do serve great for a change, since most of the time the music is really fast and not easy to comprehend. The lyrics are included and are pretty good. They deal with the astral/space aspects, similar to "Horns Lurk Beyond The Stars" on Opus IV. The booklet also contains pictures of the band members but also of space/galaxies etc. In conclusion, this is certainly some of Abigor's best work ever. PS. What's up with those hidden *explicit* pictures found on the bottom of the front cover, as well as on the back? Pretty lame if you ask me. The band is currently working on the new album, entitled "Warmachine 2002" which is to be released in late 2002.
ABSU - THE SUN OF TIPHARETH
Lately whenever someone talks about Black Metal, they think Norway, or Scandinavia in general, however, it might surprise some of you that there are BM bands outside of Europe! Absu is an American band, hailing from Texas, and have been around for quite a while actually. I believe they were formed around '89 or '90, and went under the name of Dolmen, but changed it to Absu in '91. The Sun Of Tiphareth is their second full-length album (it is really hard to find the debut release Barathrum VITRIOL). The Barathrum album did have more of a death metal sound, but it seems they have changed their sound somewhat on TSOT. Taking early influences from thrash bands such as Kreator, Sodom, Slayer, etc. and bringing it up to date (kinda like what Mayhem tried on A Grand Declaration Of War, but somewhat failed). Very interesting album, with synths, different sound effects (horses galloping, swords clashing), and some chanting and spoken word (both male and female spoken passages - very interesting!). Lots of variation on the album, so it does not get boring at all. The first two tracks are quite long, but also the definite stand outs. Many of the songs kind of fade one into another, keeping a sense of continuity in the album. Like I said, lots of catchy, thrashy riffs, along with a really cool instrumental played on the keyboards (well, it'd be even better if the riff wasn't repeated as much, ten times is quite a lot). Another interesting thing about this album is the production, which puts the drums up front and drowns out the music a bit, certainly does take some time to adapt to. Absu like to call their music Occult Metal rather than the Black or Death metal label, and I can see why. The lyrics are very unusual (dealing with weird topics, a lot of them relate to ancient Sumer actually, but most of them won't make sense unless you know something about Sumerian culture). I've noticed band's vocalist/drummer who goes by the name of Proscriptor McGovern seems to be very proud of his Celtic heritage and does display it quite often. The other two band members go by the names of Equitant Ifernain Dal Gais, and Shaftiel (Lord Of Shadows), which is really cheesy. On another note, I've noticed that the monster on the album cover is the exact same one as the one Old Man's Child used on Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion. Well, that's about it, the album is on Osmose, so it should be quite easy to find, and I'd recommend this to everyone, and especially to people who like early thrash metal.
AMORPHIS - TALES FROM THE THOUSAND LAKES / BLACK WINTER DAY E.P.
Review coming.
AMORPHIS - ELEGY
Kick ass band from Finland. Started out raw/heavy/brutal as a typical death metal band, and changed quite a lot over time! Still have to buy "Tales From A Thousand Lakes", especially now that I've loved Elegy. The album lyrics here on Elegy are based on the Kanteletar (a collection of Finnish poems and ballads) and there's some interesting liner notes in the booklet explaining about Kanteletar and it's connection with the lyrics for Elegy. 11 excellent tracks including one instrumental and an acoustic reprise of one of the tracks. Awesome guitars, VERY catchy riffs on the album. "Against Widows" - do the guitars remind of Iron Maiden or what? "Cares" - talk about a great riff... same goes for almost every one of the tracks! Of course, there's slower songs too ("The Orphan", "Elegy") and they are excellent. 6 members in the band, that's interesting. Two different vocalists - one singing the death grunts, and a clear vocalist (reminding of James Hetfield at times). Very interesting section in the middle of "Cares" where a disco/industrial beat starts for a couple of seconds and just disappears after a while (something similar was done on "Magic And Mayhem" on Tales From A Thousand Lakes). I know people who absolutely hate that part of the song, but I think it's great - the band is experimenting with new possibilities, and they've succeeded (unlike SO many bands today... "Load" anyone? I could go on...). However, seeing how Amorphis have changed a lot on Tuonela and Am Unieversum, their experimentation is not too successful. Most of the songs here on Elegy contain both clear and death vocals, with two exceptions - "The Orphan" contains clear vocals only and "Song Of The Troubled One" contains death vocals only.
ANTAEUS - CUT YOUR FLESH AND WORSHIP SATAN
First off, I really love the title of this album. Simple and straight to the point, but being an underground band, I don't think Antaeus will be sued by any parents on the allegations that their children killed themselves while listening to this. Antaeus is a French black metal band, I'm not sure if they are connected to the French "Black Legion" bands (Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes, Belketre, Torgeist), but nonetheless the music is very reminiscent of those mentioned bands. Fast and hateful Black Metal with raw production. The production is so bad, at some points your ears will start to hurt, making you lower the volume (I like my music loud, but man, this is killing my ears - however the band seems to disagree, with the message found on the inside of the booklet "Play this release at MAXIMUM volume to korrektly feel the reverse voices of the DeaD"). Due to some different studios/recording locations, the production does vary a bit in some songs. The first two songs were recorded in a different studio than tracks 3 through 7, and the last track, "Daemon" is a live version from one of the band's performances in Paris (Metal Convention, 1999). Every one of the songs on this album seems to have some sort of a "supposed to be scary" intro, with weird noises, guitar feedback, screams, etc, but it is really overdone. Even the intro on the first song annoys me because of its length, and not to mention other ones... Speaking of which, the first song is probably the most impressive song on this album. The rest of the songs are in the similar vein, but with some minimal variations (which would include the very catchy riffing in the middle of "Bleeding Blasphemy", and the Immortal sounding (BITN-era) section in "Specimen 23"). The booklet is very simple, with pictures of the band members, some info on the recording, "thanks to" sections, but lyrics nowhere to be found. But with a title such as Cut Your Flesh And Worship Satan, I don't think the lyrics would be very meaningful or anything. There is something written in French below one of the song titles, and I've been told it translates to "the eyes are the mirrors of the heart" (???). Oh yeah, the award for "The Most Illegible Logo" easily goes to Antaeus.
ARCKANUM - FRAN MARDER
Wow! Arckanum is a relatively unknown band in the scene but they've been around sine 1993 or so. Like Burzum, Arckanum is a one-man band led by Shamaatae (ex-Grotesque, which in turn became At The Gates). With 3 albums under his belt, and the fourth one which has just been recorded (Faunaz Samgang, which has not been released yet) Arckanum does offer a great change from typical Black Metal. I think Shamaatae likes to call his music Troll Metal, and it is probably the best description of his music. First off, starting off with the image of a cloaked, greenish looking creature, bearing a huge staff Shamaatae sure does look like some monster that lives in the forest. Nice for a change from typical corpse-paint. Secondly, the lyrics (which are in archaic Swedish and can be barely read) do deal with the nature, forest, trolls and such. The album is also dedicated to Pan, The God Of Nature, and after reading some interviews, I've noticed that Shamaatae really takes the whole concept of Pan, Kaos, etc. seriously. For the most part the vocals are reminiscent of typical Black Metal rasp, but there is a lot of variation on here as well (especially towards the end of "Trulmælder", which can be best described as a troll attempting to sing). Some nice chanting/choral like type of vocals on the beginning of "Bærghet". Lots of echo on the vocals as well (double echo in fact, just listen to it) which does give the album such a great atmosphere, especially becase of the music. Starting off with a 2 minute slow intro, the music kicks right in, the guitars very distorted and drums relatively clear and used most impressively! The drumming on the album is unbelievable, gotta give credit to Shamaatae. Also worth mentioning is that Peter Tägtgren produced the album (and does some backing vocals on some songs as well?). It's been said that no synths were used on the album, but I'm not so sure about that, especially when it comes to the intro/outro and beginning of "Bærghet", "Kolin Væruld" and throughout "Trulmælder". The whole album is supposed to be like one song, interrupted by various nature noises (water running, owls howling, thunder, etc). The single effect is really impressive (reminds of Transilvanian Hunger or Nattens Madrigal). However, thanks to variety in the sound (such as the intro/outro and "Bærghet" etc) this album is more impressive than the mentioned DT and Ulver albums. In fact, Fran Marder is in my Top 5 BM Albums Ever list. I believe the albums is out of print now, but there are two versions of it out there, 1000 copies with color cover art, and 1500 copies with black & white covers.
ARCTURUS - ASPERA HIEMS SYMFONIA
Here we have another one of those Norwegian 'super-groups'. This one, however, is (or better yet, was) really good. They started out as some sort of dark symphonic black metal, but on La Masquerade Infernale and the later albums they turned somewhat weird. It's pretty much the same path that Ulver took, and no surprise, members from Ulver are here (Arcturus was formed before Ulver I believe). Hellhammer is here, as is Garm but there aren't many similarities to the other bands that these people are involved with. Aspera Hiems Symfonia is the most impressive Arcturs album in my opinion. La Masquerade... had some excellent songs on it, but it was really way out there, and besides, that whole album had a *happy* mood to it. Aspera has a more of a dark mood, thanks to the very extensive use of synths. They are actually the leading instrument on this whole album. They even drive the guitars. If you like dark synth black metal (and I'm not talking about DB or COF) then this album is a definite must. A lot of the songs off this album can be found on different black metal compilations (Blackend, Nordic Metal, Firestarter,...) so that tells something about this album. It had a great impact on the scene when it came out, which was around 1995. All of the songs are very impressive, but my favorite remains the first track, "To Thou Who Dwellest In The Night". As I said, the other tracks are awesome (check out the guitar solo in "Raudt Og Svart", probably the best solo in black metal). There are a few versions of this album, digi-pack and a regular one. The one I've got is a regular one, Century Media release, and a down-side to it is that only the lyrics to the first song are included, and that there is a screw-up in the track format (two seperate song are merged into one track by mistake). All in all, this is an excellent album, especially if you are intersted in the origins of black metal, because this was pretty innovative at the time, and also, very listenable and enjoyable. Just listen to Garm's vocals, they range from melodic chants to black metal rasps, kinda similart to Ulver's "Bergtatt", the vocals are very impressive (just listen to "The Badkin & The Quietus", "... To Reach The Stars", or "Whence & Whither Goest The Wind" - great stuff). Same goes for the guitars and the synths, which are very enjoyable (listen to "Du Nordavind" and "Fall Of Man" for example, the synths are excellent). Great album!

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