IMMORTAL - PURE HOLOCAUST
Wow! 33 minutes of pure holocaust (they couldn't have picked a better
title for this album). I've got to hand it to Immortal, no matter how cheesy
the guys look with all the make-up and such, or how cheesy their lyrics
are, when it comes to playing, they are amazing! This album is unbelievable.
One of the fastest, most chaotic albums I've heard ever! (However, Abigor's
CTQOS holds the top place). Nowadays, it's no big deal to play real fast,
Dark Funeral and Marduk are doing that, together with lots more bands,
but this album came out in 1993! Being one of the first true Norwegian
BM bands, Immortal, together with Dark Throne, Satyricon, and some others,
are still active and releasing albums. The band consists of three people,
two of them being brothers, and a drummer (a session drummer?). Anyways,
the music is very chaotic, very fast, and aggressive - both the guitars
and the drums. 30 minutes may seem too short, but for an album with such
intensity and speed, but it is just enough for Immortal. If it were any
longer it'd just get boring after a while. Lyrics were all written by Demonaz,
and they are nothing special, with lots of grammatical errors, at some
points very cheesy. Same goes for the song titles. Production is not the
best, but that was done purposely to create the "cold, hateful, aggressive
atmosphere." Anyways, this album is very impressive! Most people would
say that it is better than Battles In The North. If you're looking for
a fast, intense, chaotic, aggressive (and so on...) Black Metal album -
look no further.
IMMORTAL - BATTLES IN THE NORTH
Well... This was certainly a disappointment following the masterpiece
Pure Holocaust. There's a couple of reasons for this. Immortal were taking
the *extreme, chaotic, holocaust metal* concept too serious, and concentrated
on making the album as complicated, loud and chaotic as much as possible,
they forgot to write songs. Except for the first and the last song, none
of them really stand out. The album has got the exact same sound throughout
the whole thing, and it gets boring right after the first song. From time
to time some interesting glimpses appear, such as the acoustic intro on
one of the songs (forgot which one, I think track 6, and besides, the tracklist
on the back of the cd is all wrong, took a while to figure it out), also,
some interesting guitars towards the end of the second track sound really
cool, but it doesn't make up for the rest of the cd. It just seems so boring.
I might need to give it more listens, but I don't really feel like it,
since I'd rather listen to Pure Holocaust. Anyways, Battles In The North
was recorded by the two brothers, Abbath and Demonaz, who took care of
all the instrumentation (that's probably why the drums are nowhere as good
as on Pure Holocaust). The production, and the sound on the album is kinda
unusual, takes a while to get used to it. The cd packaging is great though...
White background, white cd-case, it does look reminiscent of the "icy depths
of the North". The lyrics, as always with Immortal, are "The Cheez". The
song titles are bad enough, but when you get down to reading the lyrics,
it is just hilarious, I can't stop laughing at them, also what is the deal
with the whole Blashyrkh concept? Cheezy pictures of the two band members
included in the booklet, along with the lyrics. I think some of the pictures
from the inside of the booklet are taken from the music video Immortal
made for "Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)". I've seen the video, and it's
nothing special, the two members running around on some hills, playing
guitars really fast, and doing their best to look evil and scary. Oh yeah,
check out the "Immortal are the true Nordic masters..." blah blah... message
on the inside of the booklet. Also, the band members "exclusively play
Ibanez guitars, Pearl drums and B.C. Rich bases" Wow.. how's that for a
Tr00 Nordic Black Metal band? Anyways, either get Pure Holocaust, or the
new Immortal stuff (they changed their sound drastically on At The Heart
Of Winter, and Damned In Black).
IMPALED NAZARENE - SUOMI FINLAND PERKELE
First of all, a note in the liner notes says: "How low can you go???
Too low??? Too fucking low!!!" Is this supposed to be some kind of a warning
or something? Anyways, after being impressed by some Impaled Nazarene (on
Blackend compilations and some mp3s off the net) I decided to buy one of
their albums. Suomi Finland Perkele is supposed to be their best, so I
bought it. I expected a lot from IN, and the result was quite different.
Even though this album is only 30 minutes long, it is still not worth the
money. It does have a good song or two, but it has some absolute crap as
well (just listen to "Total War", and ending of "The Oath Of The Goat").
The music the band plays is not really black/death metal, but rather a
fusion of punk rock with heavy metal, with some growly vocals, kinda hard
to describe. The cd comes in this nice digi-pack format, with some silly
pictures of the band members (no, not corpse-paint). Half of the lyrics
are sung in Finnish, and those in English are hilarious ("Let's Fucking
Die", "Steelvagina",...). These lyrics are the kind of stuff you'd read
just to have a good laugh. The guys from IN are obviously aware of that,
but they don't seem to care, but rather have fun and make some music. I
listen to it very rarely (for example, when I wanna have a laugh), because
it is nothing special and there's lots of better cds in my collection.
The band members give themselves some interesting names (The Fuck You Man,
Mr. M.L.G-D-6th,...), and have interesting interpretations of their instruments
(Elektrik Background Blaster, 6-String Motherfuck, Virtual Main FX Abominations,...)
And there's a hilarious "Dedicated to" note. Anyways, this is a big disappointment,
buy it only if you really want it.
IN FLAMES - COLONY
"Species come and go, but the earth stands forever fast" - a lyric
from the first track, which (I believe) is supposed to represent what this
album is about. I think it is supposed to be kind of a concept album, but
I'm not sure what exactly the concept is, probably something dealing with
sci-fi/unnatural and such. One interesting thing that happened to me when
I got this cd is: I loved it after the first listen! That does not happen
to me often, usually I need time to truly appreciate an album. Anyways,
In Flames remind me a lot of Children Of Bodom/Amorphis/Sentenced and those
bands, so they are not doing anything exactly new. However, just like with
the three mentioned bands, this album is great. If you're a fan of *power
black metal* and *melodic death metal* and I don't know where to classify
this really, you'll like this album. Lots of melodies, tons of catchy riffs,
great guitars - just like COB, and the singer's style reminds of Alexi
from COB too. 11 tracks, with one instrumental, and a remake of "Behind
Space", which is originally from Lunar Strain I believe (the track is one
of my faves on Colony, together with "Insipid 2000", "Colony", and a few
others). Lyrics, as I said, are pretty weird, dealing with different things,
but mostly sci-fi I think. One excelent thing about the album is the artwork
- done by Andreas Marschall (man, this guy is great, he even rivals Derek
Riggs).
An excellent album cover! Really good! The booklet contains the lyrics,
pictures of the band and the usual. As I said, if you like COB (and melodic
Amorphis/Senteced) you should seriously buy this cd!
LIMBONIC ART - IN ABHORRENCE DEMENTIA
Well, this is an interesting release. First off, it is very long
and complex, very similar to Emperor (with loud synths and orchestrations)
and later Abigor (with the complex guitars). Being a great fan of the mentioned
bands, I came to really like this Limbonic Art cd, after numerous listens
though. It is about 63 minutes long, and all the songs are more than 7
minutes long (well, except the instrumental "Oceania", which is about 40
second long). Therefore, it takes numerous listens to understand all of
the songs, especially when they're so long and complex (the longest one
being about 12 minutes). At the beginning, I only liked the first half
of the cd, because I'd lose interest in the rest of the cd, but over time,
I managed to like all of it. But like I said, it took numerous listens
to really appreciate this cd, and even now, I can have a hard time
managing to sit through the whole thing. The first half of the album (up
to "Deathtrip To A Mirage Asylum") is really impressive though. Anyways,
the band consists of two members, Morfeus and Daemon, and a drum machine.
The drum machine is not a downside to this release at all, unlike some
other reviews suggested. At times the drums do sound techno/industrial,
but it fits in great with all the other weird synth sounds and effects,
which give the album a weird, out-of-this-world feel (kinda like the first
half of Abigor's Opus IV). The lyrics deal with almost the same topic as
the mentioned Abigor release, and I just love these lyrics. Even the track
titles on this album kick ass ("A Demonoid Virtue", "A Venomous Kiss Of
Profane Grace", ...). The lyrics deal with the supernatural, evil, fire,
darkness, etc, but it's not the same as with Immortal (where the lyrics
are just plain funny). A couple of the songs have female vocals in the
background (similar to Abigor's Nachthymnen) and they fit really good on
the album. The thing that impresses me the most about this release is the
numerous weird and unusual sounds used throughout the album, giving it
a real interesting mood, also the fact that Limbonic Art takes the *orchestral,
symphonic compositions* (ala, Emperor's Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk)
to a higher level. They expand it and utilize it way much more than Emperor
(that's why some will find this cd to be boring). I'd recommend this to
Abigor and Emperor fans, since it does remind of both of those bands.
NOKTURNAL MORTUM - GOAT HORNS
Amazing! This is like listening to Emperor with twice as much of
the symphonic compositions (well... there are two keyboard players so that
might be the reason). Nokturnal Mortum blend those compositions into the
music even better than Emperor. However, it's not as used as one might
find on a Limbonic Art or Bal-Sagoth album. These symphonic lines have
very nice folk elements to them (especially "Veles' Scrolls", which happens
to be my favorite track), and this really makes the music stand out, even
with the pretty average guitarwork. The album even starts off and closes
with completely guitar-free, fully symphonic instrumentals (great pieces).
Anyways, Nokturnal Mortum, the famous Black Metal band from Ukraine, formed
in the early 90's, but released this debut album only in 1997. They nowadays
seem to be concentrating with the NS/WP aspects (especially on NeChrist,
and I plan to buy that cd as soon as possible, the stuff I've heard off
it sounded really good, even with the 14/88 stuff being a downside to it).
The production here on Goat Horns reminds me a lot of Graveland's Carpathian
Wolves, with the thin guitars, symphonic keyboards, and raspy, hard-to-hear
vocals. The productions is pretty much the same as the one on the mentioned
Graveland album. The keyboards would be one of the most important aspects
here, and do often sound louder than the guitars in the mix. I've heard
people compare Nokturnal Mortum to Dimmu Borgir, but there is only minimal
similarities one can find. Yes, the use of lots of keyboards is evident,
but it's placed properly and with taste, throughout the blazing fast guitar
riffs. An easier and a better comparison would be to Emperor (ITNE, ATTWAD
era). The booklet doesn't contain lyrics, but has some pictures and info
about the album. In conclusion, this is an excellent album, all of the
songs stand out (since they're pretty much all longer than 5, 6 minutes).
Also would serve as a great introduction to Nokturnal Mortum's music. Being
of Slavic background myself, these folky melodies really put the band up
front as one of my favorites in the scene nowadays.
NAGLFAR - VITTRA
Finally! I've been looking for this cd for months, and finally got
it for $20. This cd seems to be really rare. I see it on eBay from time
to time, and it usually goes for $40-$50 (I saw the Vittra picture disc,
new, excellent condition, go for $100 on eBay too). The reason the cd is
so rare is that it was released by Wrong Again Records which is now defunct,
and the cd has been out of print ever since. There's talk about a re-issue
being released by another label, but nothing for sure. So, is this worth
$40-$50? Nope. Is it worth $20-$30? Definitely! It's a great, melodic black/death
album from Sweden's Naglfar. Some people call this a moderate/usual/boring/nothing
special cd, and I can see exactly what they mean. What Naglfar does is
use a couple of excellent, catchy, very melodic, "reminds-of-Iron-Maiden"
guitar riffs, and re-use them on the most of the album, so after the first
dozen of listens, the cd is harder to listen to, since it all sounds so
similar. However, if you're like me, and like these great riffs, you'll
really enjoy this album. It's not as boring as it seems because there's
some variations to keep you interested in the thing. The vocals are mostly
black metal screams, with some variations (such as the high-pitch shrieks,
and very low, growly parts in some songs). Also, the use of keyboards and
synths provides even more variation. There's some acoustic parts/intros,
also some songs have some short bass-solos to diminish the boredom factor,
and it works. Also, the short, slow, title-track provides some more breathing
space. The production is excellent, done by Peter Tägtgren, and all
of the instruments can be heard easily (I love the drumming on this album!).
The booklet includes lyrics, lots of pictures, and tons of info, which
is really great. The lyrics are one of the great things on this album,
it's the weird type of lyrics, about the Scandinavian landscapes, the mythology
and such, I really like them. Even though they don't make sense at times
(and the fact that there's no way to actually grasp them while listening),
they're much better than the lyrics of some other bands out there. Seems
that the second Naglfar album, Diabolical, is heavier and more complex
than this one, so I might buy it in the future. Currently, the band is
working on a MCD (Ex-Inferis, which has now been released) and a new album,
while at the same time dealing with some legal problems and troubles (a
cross-bow?). In conclusion, a great melodic album in the vein of Dissection,
if you like that type of stuff, buy it!
OLD MAN'S CHILD - ILL-NATURED SPIRITUAL
INVASION
At the time this album was released, OMC was a one-man project,
Tom Rune (Galder) has written all the music/lyrics on this album, and does
all the instrumentation except for the drums (which were done very good
by Gene Hogland). Update-the new album, Revelation 666 has been released,
and it's not longer a one-man band. Lots of people consider OMC "Third-Rate
Black Metal" and I can see why. This disc is nothing special. It does have
excellent songs, great riffs, mesmerizing neo-classical elements and keyboards,
but when you think about it, lots of bands have the exact same thing too,
and they do it a lot better. My favorite track would probably be "Fall
Of Man". Some very annoying intro on "God Of Impiety"- lots of guitar feedback...
Plain annoying. The album was recorded at Sunlight Studio - production
is perfect. Lots of generic guitar riffs here (best example is "The Dream
Ghost" - EXACT rip off of Bruzum's "Stemmen Fra Taarnet", also, the riff
at the beginning of "God Of Impiety" is a blatant rip off of one of Blind
Guardian's riffs in "Tommyknockers" and besides that, lots more rip offs).
The vocals are usual black metal vocals, nothing special. The vocals "was
all improvised while recording (not pre-rehearsed)". That would be the
reason for so many mistakes and errors in the lyrics. The lyrics themselves
are just plain funny. Basic Satanic crap (Dark Funeral has the exact same
lyrics, but their music is at least somewhat interesting...). Lots of spelling
and grammatical errors in the lyrics too. The booklet contains some more
pictures of the "scary monster guy with the sword" from the album cover.
This album is nothing special indeed, not in the fact that it's bad it's
just bunch of rip offs from better artists. Oh yeah, another thing, the
band is on Century Media label, I know quite a few people who say that
any black metal band on Nuclear Blast or Century Media is not "true" and
has "sold out". I think those people are stupid.
OPETH - MY ARMS, YOUR HEARSE
Following a short piano intro, the albums starts to blast its way
through, resulting in the heaviest, and most Black Metal sounding Opeth
album. However, this is not to say that it doesn't have the traditional
slow and acoustic Opeth moments, because they are on here of course (it
wouldn't be an Opeth album if it didn't have any). Most songs on
this album are well known in the scene, especially considering the fact
that many of them appear on various Black Metal compilations. Those songs
are basically the stand-outs on this album, and those include: "When",
"The Amen Corner", "Demon Of The Fall", and "April Ethereal" which are
all excellent. Each one of them varied from the slow acoustic passages
to heavy crushing riffs. The version that I've got is the Candlelight re-issue,
which includes two bonus tracks, a cover of Celtic Frost's "Circle Of The
Tyrants" and a cover of Iron Maiden's "Remember Tomorrow. Both covers are
done perfectly. "Remember Tomorow" sounds pretty much the same as the Iron
Maiden version, which is great. "Circle Of The Tyrants", however, has been
changed around a bit. Opeth added their own sound to the song, making it
sound as if it is the part of their album. It's different than the original,
but a really excellent cover. The booklet contains the lyrics, all of which
follow one another, to create a pretty interesting story-line. This album
would appeal the most to Black Metal fans in general, because of the vocals,
and the fact that it is the heaviest sounding Opeth album. If you've own
most of these songs on different compilations, I'd strongly recommend you
actually buy this album, then you will have all of those songs on one cd,
plus you'd be getting two bonus tracks, and finally, you'd be supporting
this great band. If you already own the original, then it's up to you,
personally, I wouldn't buy it then. But if you do not own the original,
then go out and buy this!
OPETH - STILL LIFE
Opeth is certainly a very interesting band. A couple of years ago,
I heard a couple of their songs on a few different compilation discs, and
even though I disliked them at first, they certainly grew on me (especially
"Nectar" off Morningrise, I love that song now). Much to my surprise, I
saw Opeth's newest release, "Still Life" in a cd store and decided to grab
it at once, since it's not often I see such a cd in the store. Anyways,
I bought it and it was a great move. Just like Opeth showed on the few
tracks I heard earlier, this album is full of long, complex tracks (Opeth
is the Dream Theater of black/death metal, and yes, that is a compliment).
However, if you're not a fan of Opeth, you might have trouble getting into
this release. The album is quite long, 62 minutes, and has 7 songs (a few
clocking at 10 or more minutes), so that should tell you already that people
with a short attention span will not like this release at all. Fans of
progressive melodic black/death metal will like this though, and will probably
be able to really appreciate it after a few listens. Songs on the cd range
from faster, heavier sections with the usual death growl vocals, to slower,
acoustic passages where clean vocals are used. Generally, all tracks except
"Benighted" and "Face Of Melinda" are stand-outs. Most of the songs on
here are quite long, so you'll hear both the fast, heavy sections, as well
as the slower ones. There is much more clean singing than the "growl" on
this album, so fans of earlier Opeth albums might not like this album.
I think that the clean vocals of Mikael Åkerfeldt are really impressive!
One thing though, to really appreciate this album, you need to be in the
"mood" for it, since it is one of those cds that requires all of your attention
to realize the beauty, complexity and creativeness of it. Therefore, one
time you'll think it's one of the best cds you've heard in a long time,
but the next time you play it, chances are you'll totally lose interest
in it, and find it pretty boring. Anyways, like I said this album is recommended
for Opeth fans, and also Dream Theater fans, since this band sounds so
much like Dream Theater (if they went black/death though). This album would
also serve as a great introduction to Opeth's music in general and if you
like it, it will prompt you to buy their other releases (I'm planning to
buy Morningrise as soon as I get the chance).
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