SAMAEL - 1987-1992 (WORSHIP HIM / BLOOD
RITUAL)
Here's a 2 CD set which includes Samaels debut album, Worship Him,
and their second one, Blood Ritual. The set has been reissued by Century
Media, since the original copies of these albums are pretty hard to find
nowadays. While today Samael are playing some sort of techno, industrial
type of music, they started out as one of the first real Black Metal bands.
I will review each album seperately:
Worship Him
Slow, dark, and heavy black metal, with real black metal vocals
(which today are standard for just about any BM band), but there weren't
many bands at the time this was recorded (1990) that utilized these type
of vocals. Influences from bands such as Bathory and especially Celtic
Frost are to be heard all over this album. Most song have great guitar
riffs, with the rest of the instruments just following and adding depth
to the music. Bass is pretty audible and used nicely, and drums are very
impressive. Never miss a beat, and every once in a while do a little fill,
but blast-beats are rarely to be heard (well there are some in "The Dark").
Some synths used as well (but not as extensively as on the later stuff,
with the exception on "Last Benediction"). As I mentioned, Vorphalack's
vocals are just amazing, absolutely raw and hateful. The stand out tracks
include "Worship Him", "Morbid Metal" (where the guitars sound very thrashy
and remind of Celtic Frost, while the vocals remind of Quorthon from Bathory),
"The Dark" (a great instrumental piece), "Rite Of Cthulhu" (an instrumental
which has a weird scary guitar sound all over it) and easily the best song
on the album: "Into The Pentagram", which starts of with a synth intro,
and slowly builds up into a dark brooding atmosphere. Excellent track.
10 tracks in total, about 41 minutes in length, and the album was produced
by the bandmembers themselves. More impressive than Blood Ritual, that's
for sure.
Blood Ritual
Wow, what a difference in production. While Worship Him had somewhat
crappy production, here it is absolutely crystal clean (this time the band
didn't produce the album themselves). Every instrument can be heard easily,
and the guitars and vocals are not as loud as on the debut. The production,
and some of the riffs, remind of Slayer and also are reminiscent of some
Florida death metal scene bands. Blood Ritual is more death metal than
black metal, and that is the main reason I'm not too crazy about this album.
But that's not saying that this album is bad, there are some great songs
on here. "Beyond The Nothingness", "Blood Ritual", "After The Sepulture".
"Macabre Operetta" has a very nice, slow acoustic intro, as well as a nice
bass outro. Most of these songs have got nice, slow, heavy riffs very reminiscent
of death metal bands, as mentioned, however there's a couple of faster
songs as well ("Blood Ritual" is a fast catchy tune). "Since The Creation"
and "Total Consecration" on the other hand, have interesting synth intros.
The vocals on this album are not as good as on Worship Him, they're toned
down, and not screamed out as much. Same thing goes for the guitars, and
bass is hardly audible, with an excpetion on a couple of places. Drumming
hasn't improved much either. Well there's not much left to say, Worship
Him is definitely more impressive than Blood Ritual, but this 2 CD set
is definitely worth having, especially if you're intersted in the origins
of Black Metal and what it started out as.
SATYRICON - DARK MEDIEVAL TIMES
Satyricon, another straight forward Norwegian Black Metal band,
led by "I've got my own label, and I hate Napster" Satyr, is extremely
impressive on their debut, Dark Medieval Times. Starting off with a quite
medieval sounding intro, the music jumps right into the typical, cold,
and atmospheric Black Metal which has Norway written all over it. Reminding
me somewhat of Enslaved's early work, Satyricon do abrupt switches from
fast, furios Black Metal to acoustic, atmospheric, medieval sounding sections,
which are very impressive (especially in the title track, when the flute
kicks in, probably the stand-out on here). Almost every one of the songs
has such breaks and they work really great to create a cold atmosphere.
There's even a whole song that is just acoustic guitars, some synths, and
Satyr belching out the lyrics in an interesting fashion, unlike on the
rest of the album (however, it's very lame sounding as well, I tend to
skip the track). The production is pretty crappy, but it's no wonder, because
the album was recorded in the ruins of an ancient Norwegian castle, probably
to show hot Tr00 the band is. Guitar is somewhat thin sounding and has
a buzz to it, but it just helps create the atmosphere. Drums are incredibly
impressive though, Frost knows how to play drums, using a variety of drums
and beats, really improves the atmosphere. Lyrics are not included in the
booklet, only a long message about the medieval times and Satyricon's role
in preserving the "timeless and independent music which lives forever".
Other than that the booklet contains a Pesten painting from 1349, and the
word Norge in big letters. The cover art is extremely crappy, anyone could
draw a scarier picture than what's already there. However, the music is
very impressive, this is definitely Satyricon's best work ever. Most of
the songs are long, and every one of them is complex but at the same time
catchy and interesting, so keeps the listener satisfied and wanting more.
As I mentioned, Satyr does has his own label Moonfog, but what's the point
of having your own label when in a period of 5 years you only release about
20 cds (Dark Medieval Times is FOG001, Rebel Extravaganza is FOG22). I
guess one reason is $$$ (which would explain the couple of crappy, pointless
mini-CDs Satyr released on the label just to get some cash). In any case,
an excellent album - one of the most impressive Norwegian Black Metal albums!
SATYRICON - NEMESIS DIVINA
Satyricon is one of those bands that has a kick ass, extremely impressive
debut album, and then go downwards from that point on. Even though this
album is not as boring/long as Rebel Extravaganza, it's nothing much when
compared to Dark Medieval Times. The production on here is much better,
with more emphasis on guitars (instead of the medieval atmosphere, which
is barely displayed on this release - that's a huge disappointment). This
time Satyr and Frost have another memeber in the band, Kveldulv, who does
the guitars along with Satyr. The music itself is different than on the
debut, it's much more complex and the album needs numerous listens before
it can be truly appreciated. It sounds a lot like Emperor on In The Nightside
Eclipse. There are awesome moments on this album nonetheless, especially
on intros/outros of quite a few tracks (great example would be "Forhekset").
Even though there are glimpses of interesting compositions inside the songs,
for most part the songs themselves tend to drag on for a while before any
change is introduced. The music is generally much faster than on the debut.
What I've come to notice is that Satyr loves to recycle riffs, some riffs
off the debut are used on here, and some of the riffs from this album are
reused on Rebel Extravaganza. There's quite a few liner notes in the booklet,
one pertaining to Satyr and the crew having a choice "between spending
time being creative or drowning in [fan] mail." Well, I don't see a lot
of creativity on this album, especially considering that at the time of
the release, there were numerous bands who played this type of Norwegian
Black Metal and yet were much more creative than this. Another hilarious
note regarding the "losers within the Black Metal Scene who talk a lot
of shit". I guess Satyr was being criticized for not doing anything new
with Satyricon, so he's expressing his anger throughout pointless liner
notes. Besides those notes, the booklet contains the lyrics and lots of
pictures of the band members, wielding swords and skulls, with the proud
eagle standing on a "throne" behind them, etc. Well anyways, it's not a
bad release, typical Norwegian Black Metal sums it up nicely.
SATYRICON - REBEL EXTRAVAGANZA
Another well-known Norwegian band, that started out somewhat later
than Emperor/Enslaved/Dark Throne... etc, but has still had an impact on
the scene (Dark Medieval Times was such a great album!). Rebel Extravaganza,
Satyricon's latest release, is one damn long album, around 64 minutes long.
As with all long albums, there is lots of repetition/filler/boring parts
here. The first song drags on for more than 11 minutes, and same goes for
the last track. Most of the other songs are quite long as well (with the
exception of the two or three "one-minute-long, pointless-as-hell" songs).
Lots of repetition, songs like "Filthgrinder" go on at a same, stagnant
pace for 6 minutes, and only then we get some change. "Prime Evil Renaissance"
does have cool riffs (one of them sounds like such a rip-off of one Metallica's
"Eye Of The Beholder" riffs), and "Havoc Vulture" does have some kind of
a "groove" to it (especially with the "let's-get-the-crowd-going-Come-On!-scream"
just before the chorus). "A Moment Of Clarity" is another catchy song.
But songs like "Supersonic Journey", and the short tracks, are extremely
boring, and seem like such filler material. The album is released on Moonfog,
which is Satyr's label (he does everything but play the drums in the band).
When it comes down to it, the guitar work is pretty good, so gotta give
Satyr some credit. His vocals are typical black metal vocals, with some
effects/changes added on a few tracks. Drumming, which is done by Frost,
is really impressive! Really fast, tight, and precise and it certainly
does improve the album. The lyrics on the album deal with "misanthropic
view on humanity", as Satyr describes it. Anyways, the album cover is pretty
stupid, typical "we look so scary" picture, which has been done by bands
like Dark Throne and Immortal a number of times. Booklet contains all the
lyrics, and lots of photos of Satyr and Frost trying to look scary, or
trying to beat the Resident Evil booklet by trying to look more evil and
violent. In conclusion, if you're gonna buy a Satyricon album, get their
debut, Dark Medieval Times, first. Oh yeah, another thing, there's some
talk about this album having a hidden track, the one before the first track
(same thing is supposed to be on Arcturus' "La Masquerade Infernale" album),
but I'm having trouble finding it.
SENTENCED - FROZEN
Another Finnish band, very much in the vein of Amorphis. Just like
Amorphis - they started out very raw and death sounding, but changed quite
a bit over time. The vocals on the album are mostly clear - with some traces
of death grunts. 12 tracks on this album. I think it's just too many. Two
instrumental songs also (as an intro and outro). There's some kick ass
songs on here ("Farewell"/"The Suicider"/"Let Go(The Last Chapter)"/ and
"Burn" - my favorite track on the album - very aggressive and heavy - unlike
the rest of the album). Most of the songs are 'laid-back' and very slow
which make a very depressing mood. The lyrics are some of the most depressing
ones I've ever read - listening to some of these songs you'd just wanna
kill yourself... I mean - "Drown Together"/"Grave Sweet Grave"... Those
are some depressing tracks. Anyways, I guess one of the reasons I don't
like very much is because of all that "suicide" mood, just not my type
- I'm not a particularly happy person, but neither am I this suicidal...
The booklet doesn't contain all of the lyrics, a couple of tracks are missing.
One thing that really annoys me, for whatever reason, is in one of the
first few tracks ("For The Love That I Bear", I think that's the one) where
the singer just stops, and belches into the microphone. Very unprofessional,
and very out of place in my opinion. I mean if it was a parody album or
something I could understand, but like this - it's just plain dumb and
pointless.
SERBERUS - IN ETERNITY
Here's a band that's keeping American Black Metal scene alive, even
though they're fairly new (formed in '98), they certainly kick ass on this
EP. Self-described as "Aggressive Melodic Death Metal", Serberus
are indeed a mix of a bunch of different bands (influences to be heard
from Bay Area thrash to Swedish Death Metal). This CD is released by the
band themselves (I'm surprised these guys aren't signed yet), and the packaging
is done very professionally. Music is full of speed and melody and drums
are pretty loud in the mix. For an unsigned band, the production on here
is killer! Engineered and produced by the band themselves. The band has
two vocalists, I personally prefer Dave, while Ivan is still pretty damn
good. The CD contains 4 songs (plus a hidden track, a live version of "Ancient
Throne" - which really kicks ass and shows that these guys can pull this
off in a live setting!). The booklet contains all the lyrics, photos and
other info. I've received this CD for free from the band, along with some
other band promotional material (on some of the photos, Ivan wears a Dissection
shirt, Aaron wears an Iron Maiden shirt, these guys know good music!).
Well can't say much more, except that the music is excellent, with lots
of melody, speed and occasional shifts and interesting breaks (especially
towards the end of "Ancient Throne", and in the middle of "Gates Of Fire").
The most melodic and so far my favorite track has got to be "Dark Dream",
which is pretty fast, very melodic and has really catchy guitar hooks.
Highly recommended for everyone, buy the cd, support the underground and
help the American Black Metal scene break through.
SERBERUS - OUR DYING GRACE
The latest Serberus release is yet another MCD (wasn't there supposed
to be a full-lenght released some time soon?) While In Eternity was a great
listen, Our Dying Grace fails to make a lot of impression, since it's basically
a remake of the first EP. There is only one new track on here ("Our Dying
Grace"). The rest include an intro (pretty pointless one), remakes of two
songs off "In Eternity" ("Dark Dream" and "Ancient Throne"), and a Destruction
cover. "Our Dying Grace" is a typical Serberus track, nothing new or groundbreaking.
The two remakes aren't as good as their original versions, although they're
still intereting to listen to (the production could've been done better...
for example, the break in the middle of "Dark Dream" is unbelievably quiet).
The Destruction cover is pretty good but having never listened to the original
version of "Curse The Gods" can't really say much more about it. A huge
upside to this release would be the extensive multimedia section contained
on the cd. Pop this CD into your computer and you can find lots of goodies,
ranging from full length mp3s off "In Eternity" to two full-length videos
to biography/discography/reviews/interviews/lyrics... etc (my review of
In Eternity is on there too, but since I changed the webpage address, the
link is not working anymore). The multimedia section basically contains
anything you ever wanted to know about Serberus, and it alone makes the
cd worth it. Also, the booklet and the cd itself are done really professionally,
much better than In Eternity. A news update on Serberus: a split live release
(Serberus/Silencer) has been released, titled "Black Flames & Burning
Worlds". Check out the official website for details (www.serberus.com)
SETHERIAL - HELL ETERNAL
Hell Eternal - a perfect title for this insane album. 40 minutes
of blazing fast guitars, distorted to hell, unbelievably fast drums, and
typical black metal vocals. Yes, the description does bring Marduk and
Dark Funeral to mind, but this album is faster than any of the releases
the two mentioned bands have put out so far. Hmm... interesting to see
that all the three bands are from Sweden... Anyways, I've seen a description
of this album as "...makes Marduk and Dark Funeral sound slow!..." and
I agree with that. This album is so fast, it's unbelievable. So if you're
looking for a fast album, that does not have female vocals, slower parts
or a lot of synths (there's some on this album, but you can barely notice
them, why did they even bother?), you should definitely buy this, because
chances are, you will like it. However, if you're looking for a diverse
album, that changes around, has lots of melodies and pleasant variations
this will seem extremely dull and boring. This album does remind of Immortal's
Battles In The North cd, because of all the speed, however, the Setherial
album varies way more often, and is much more impressive, and nowhere as
boring as the mentioned Immortal album. One very odd thing about this cd
is the production, first off, the album was recorded in the Abyss studio,
and it's produced by Setherial and Tommy Tägtgren (Peter's brother,
Tommy, who also produced Dark Funeral's EP "Teach Children To Worship Satan").
When you have such a fast album as this, it's not easy to do a good production
job, the album ends up sounding a bit odd (another good example would be
the production on Marduk's Opus Nocturne, it's a bit unusual too). The
production on Hell Eternal brings guitars up front, drowning out the drums
and vocals somewhat, so it takes time to get really used to the production.
Even when you do get used to the sound, it takes more listens to really
notice all the changes and variations in drums and guitars. Anyways, cool
packaging, booklet includes lyrics and a "thanks to" section (they thank
Abigor among other bands, that's really cool). Another thing, Setherial
has one of the coolest logos around, which was done by Jens Rydén
(the singer of Naglfar, who also came up with the Naglfar logo).
SUMMONING - DOL GULDUR
This is a 2 man project, care of Silenius (who used to sing and
kick ass in Abigor) and Protector. This kind of music is not really black
metal. It is "Tolkien Metal", both lyrically and musically. It's also classified
as ambient... Lyrics are straight out of J.R.R. Tolkien's work, but it
doesn't make a big difference, since you can't make out most of them (some
of the lyrics were written by Abigor's Peter too). This album is VERY long,
70 minutes or so! Very repetitive riffs and keyboard elements do not make
it bad, they actually *mesmerise* you into the realm Summoning is trying
to create (probably a Middle Earth "Lord Of The Rings" type of realm).
A couple of songs are over 10 minutes long, and just keep on going, but
I don't mind it at all. I actually like them. "Elfstone" is a great track.
The album also has two 'under 2 min.' songs, which are very good too. The
second one especially ("Wyrmvater Glaurung" - I love the keyboard elements
and effects in that one). Vocals are basically the usual black metal screams,
Silenius sings like he used to in Abigor, but at times even higher - reminding
of Gorgoroth. Booklet contains some weird photos of the two members, and
a couple of weird paintings. Overall, do not buy this album before you
check out a few sound samples, since otherwise it will bore the hell out
of you, however, after some time (a couple of listens) it should grow on
you - and impress you with it's repetition. Personally, I think it's an
awesome album, and so do lots of other people. Another thing that I LOVE
about Summoning is thier logo - one of the best I've ever seen! (I've even
used it as background on the index page of this site).
THE BLACK - THE PRIEST OF SATAN
First off, this album does not break any new ground in the scene,
so if you're looking for innovation and immense creativity, don't look
here. What this album is all about is standard Black Metal in it's basic
form. Lots of different influences heard on this release, delivered in
standard fashion. However, this album is definitely worth having, mainly
because of the guitar work. For those of you who don't know, Rietas (vocalist/guitarist)
is actually Jon from Dissection, so hard-core Dissection fans must have
this. As I mentioned, the guitars are the highlight of this release, and
mainly because of Jon. Lots of catchy riffs, solid guitarwork and
complex melodies (some which Abigor seems to have took from these guys
on some of their later releases). Keyboards are used quite often as well,
but it's not as bad as say Dimmu, instead they're used tastefully, and
never over-used, mostly serving as background support for the music. Some
samples are also included on here (such as howling, thunder, wind blowing
etc,) There is 12 songs on this cd, yet it barely lasts 40 minutes,
so most of the songs are really short. That's not bad at all, the songs
do not tend to drag on, in fact, you're left with a yearning for more (especially
when it comes to some of the better songs such as "Lady Lilith", "Black
Blood", "After My Prayers" - they're way too short, some of them barely
reaching the 2 minute mark). While on the topic of song titles etc. it's
not hard to notice that this album is solely based on LaVey Satanism. Even
though the lyrics are not included, this seems pretty obvious (Leviathan,
"The Goat Of Mendes", "The Priest Of Satan"). The Black did not stay around
for a long time, only other release besides this debut full length is the
demo MCD "Black Blood". Jon seems to have left the band in order to concentrate
on Dissection (good move). This album is one of the first cds released
by Necropolis, and is probably getting pretty hard to find, it features
excellent artwork on the cover, and inside the booklet some info on the
band, and pictures are included. PS. Does anyone know who the other two
guys really are (The Black, and Leviathan) and if they are (or were) involved
in any other bands in the Swedish scene?
ULVER - NATTENS MADRIGAL (THE MADRIGAL
OF THE NIGHT)
Ulver is a fairly well-known Norwegian band. The thing about them
is the fact that every one of their releases is much different than the
other one. Bergtatt was okay (the first song on that cd is the best Ulver
song ever), the rest of the cd was not much. Kveldsanger (the all-acoustic
album) was not really my cup of tea, but Nattens Madrigal is awesome. The
later stuff is not very good either (they went techno/pop-rock/ambient...).
In my opinion, Nattens Madrigal is their best stuff, because it's pure
black metal. The production is really Dark Throne, Ildjarn type raw and
incoherent (this album is said to have been recorded in a forest, but even
Garm himself admitted it's not true). Once past the bad production, which
should be no problem for any BM fan, one will find a masterpiece album.
The whole album is really fast BM, only with strange noises on intro/outro
of each song. Although most of the songs sound the same, there are some
very distinct differences on here. For example, "Hymn I" has a nice acoustic
break in the middle of the song (yeah, I know, *every* one of the reviews
of this album mentions this), "Hymn IV" has a *very* catchy riff, same
goes for "Hymn VI", "Hymn VIII" has a nice use of piano throughout. The
album is entitled "The Madrigal Of Night - Eight Hymnes To The Wolf In
Man". All the lyrics and the entire concept deals with werevolves, but
since most of us don't know how to read/speak archaic Danish, the translation
is provided. Among the lyrics, the booklet contains pictures of the band
members (I wonder in how many bands Garm is involved with), and some liner
notes from the band. The story behind this release is also a very interesting
one, and the fact how they ripped-off Century Media is purely amazing.
The cd is no longer distributed in the US by CM, and on the back of the
cd where the info on distro is, the US section is blacked out (haha). All
in all, this is a good Black Metal release, but that's about it. It won't
appeal to people who are looking for clean and crisp production, or synth-saturated
music, but die-hard fans will definitely wish to own this album.
USURPER - NECRONEMESIS
Usurper - heavy, chrushing Black Metal from the US! These guys have
impressed me immensely with the track that appears on one of the Blackend
compilations, and ever since I've heard the track I wanted to get one of
their full-length albums. Necronemesis is an excellent example of what
Usurper is all about. Heavy guitars (some of the heaviest I've ever heard)
and catchy riffs are all over this album. The drums have a distinct sound,
and that is because the double bass is always triggered (sometimes the
snare is triggered too). They said in an interview that usually the double
bass sound is so heavy it would get lost in the mix, and would end up sounding
muddy, unless it was triggered. This really does improve the sound quality
in my opinion. The guitars are very Celtic Frost influenced, but that's
not the only thing - in some parts of the album, the vocals themselves
are very reminiscent of Tom Warrior (don't forget the trademark "Unh!"
which appears quite often and sounds just the way Tom did in CF). Speaking
of vocals, two guest vocalists appear on some of the tracks. King Diamond
himself does some guest vocals on the title track (how the hell did they
get him?), and Sir Proscriptor McGovern of Absu appears on "Full Metal
Maelstrom". The bandmembers have interesting names, such as Diabolical
Slaughter, Necromancer, Hellstorm and Scythe. The booklet contains pictures,
info, lyrics and some extra liner notes regarding the lyrics and other
things which deal with the supernatural and such (very interesting read,
especially the urban legends). The cd itself is around 73 minutes long
but that is only because of the hidden track (which is really hilarious!
You've got to hear this). The stand-outs include "Full Metal Maelstrom",
"Funeral Waters", "1666 AD",... actually all of the songs are awesome.
Along with Judas Iscariot this is one of the most impressive US Black Metal
bands. Highly recommended for anyone into heavy, chrushing metal.
VINTERSORG - ÖDEMARKENS SON
This is the third release from the one-man side project of Otyg
vocalist, Vintersorg. Described as a mix of folk and black metal, this
certainly is interesting for a change from the usual, every-day black metal.
The first and the most important aspect of Vintersorg is the clean vocals.
Only a few black metal grunts on the whole disc, the rest is all Vintersorg
singing in his normal voice (which sometimes sounds a bit odd, but most
of the time very impressive). Lots of vocal harmonies and catchy choruses
really make the singing stand out, especially the chorus of "I Den Trolska
Dalens Hjärta" and "När Alver Sina Runor Sjungit" (as you may
have noticed, all of the lyrics are written in Swedish, which sounds really
interesting and much different than Norwegian, especially sung in such
a fashion as Vintersorg does it). Even though I don't know what the lyrics
are exactly about, Vintersorg himself has written "A Statement From A Naturechild"
on the inside of the cd case, saying how the lyrics are about the nature
and such (tree-hugging hippie). Well, actually it's much better than Immortal's
lyrics. All the instruments are done by Vintersorg himself, except for
a few guest musicians (playing keyboards/violins/some guitar solos). Most
of the time the guitars are playing simple, extremely catchy, rock-n-roll
music (especially the intro on "Offerbäcken" which is really catchy).
The guitars stay pretty simple throughout the whole album and never get
too complicated, and drums fit the music perfectly. Production is very
clean making all of the instruments really easy to hear, but with the main
priority on vocals (which are a bit too loud in the mix). Booklet contains
all the lyrics, and photos of the man himself in hanging out in the woods
(and even surrounded by happy looking trolls on one of the pics!). Overall,
a great album, especially because of the vocals. PS. Vintersorg is now
the new Borknagar singer, and appears on Borknagar's Empiricism album.
Check it out!
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