Although by taking a look at the packaging on this release you'd expect for it to be nothing more than another generic chunk of black metal, your quite wrong (well, for the most part..it is generic, but *good* generic*). This album, by all standards, if fucking brilliant. Hyper-fast Emperor style black metal peppered with perfect guitar melodies, drums, keys, and vocals. Six tracks (one of which is 12 min long, and another being 13 minutes long!), and 45 minutes of the finest music to come out of the second-wave of this genre. Although nothing purely original is created on this release, Setherial have taken all of the positive elements of black metal, pumped them up, and made a near flawless disc...they should be credited for that. Comparisons can be made to Emperor, especially in the vocal department, yet these guys are a tad faster, and far more guitar based. All of the tracks are blasting the whole way through, yet occasionally stops for an "atmospheric" guitar or synth bit. Let's break down this album in a different way:

Vocals-The vox contained here are similar to Emperor, yet screamed a tad louder, and perhaps a bit more rasped. Nothing really experimental here, yet quite successful. Some of the better *unoriginal* vocals I've heard in a long time.

Guitars-The guitar sound here is thick yet nicely produced (by Peter Tägtgren of Hypocrisy fame) and brings forth some excellent riffs. The guitarist (Lord Mysterii) is quite the player, he combines some technical riffs, yet they all sound excellent.

Drums-Whoever the drummer is on this album (session played by an "Anders") he sure know's his stuff. The drums on this disc (with a well produced double-bass) are excellent, right up there with other technical speed-demons such as Hellhammer.

Synths-Synths on this disc are used lightly, but when employed add a perfect amount of atmosphere.

Overall an excellent album, and a must have since it rarely get's boring, and proves that not all bands have to be overly original to be successful.

© 1997 brand