Here's something a tad tamer (yet just as interesting) for those of you who just read my War88 review. This is a 50 band (!!), 3 CD (!!) compilation coming from none other than France's Velvet Music International. As I just mentioned, there are an impressive 50 band showcased on this compilation (of which around 47 have some black metal qualities to them), most of them from either France (joy!) or Germany. Packaging is in a tasteful black and white 3 CD case (thus it's a fairly large jewel case), and contains all (except for Zephyrous') contact addresses. Obviously I can't take a look at all 50 bands (although I'll give a track listing at the end of this), so instead I'll take a brief look at the few standout tracks.

CD 1: -Moonblood (Ger) "Fullmoon Witchery": Moonblood, a violently raw band from Germany, just keep improving from song to song. "Fullmoon Witchery" is no exception. Filled with brutal speed, a rough sounding 8 track production, sick (SICK) vocals, and a lovely (depressive) guitar line played over the violence, the song runs smoothly for the 4 minutes that it lasts. I want more from these guys.

-Necromicon (Swe) "The Hated One": Finally a decent Swedish band!! Besides Sorhin, Setherial, and Arckanum (plus a handful of others) I'm not the biggest fan of Swedish bands. But this is just so (SO!!!) brutal, and at the time interestingly riffed that it deserves some attention. Brutal screeched vocals, tasteful guitar riffs, decent synths....excellent. A word of praise to whomever can point me in the right direction of this bands demo/or tape trade me a rehearsal (I suppose I could just write as well :P).

-Ordog (Scotland!!!) "What is the Waves Stop": A Scottish band!! Even though I haven't lived in the UK for almost 5 years now, I still have yet to hear a Scottish black metal band. Ordog do their country proud. Filled with a thick and simple guitar line, the vocalist is heard yelling in a thick Scottish accent, the music then quickly blasts into a simple and straightforward black metal track with solid rasped vocals. Excellent!

-Aes Dana (Fra) "Visions Éthérés: A simple track filled with generic riffed vocals, but it's simple and raw enough to be enjoyable. A nice piano line starts out most of the song, but dies off after a while in exchange for some synth. Not bad

CD 2: -Antaues (Fra) "Daemon": From the bands killer "Supremacist Dawn" demo. Raw, sick, badly played, and horribly produced French black metal. I love it. Filled with brief speed section, sick vocals, and insane double bass stops. Buy the demo.

-Tears of Ea (Fra) "The Dove": Wow! Now this track really impressed me. Super professional, highly epic black metal....but with more female vocals than male. As a matter of fact, the entire track consists of a near baroque and epic musical section (VERY professional) with a very angelic female vocalist leading the way. Every few moments, some black metal vocals follow her's, but only in the background. With a bit more work, this band could be killer.

-Gorgon (Fra) "Dance of the Coffins": No intro necessary really. Cult band Gorgon bring forth a killer track here in old style, super violent fashion. But their CD...it's of high quality at least.

-Horna (Fin) "Hornan Väki": One of the up and coming Finnish bands. Solid black metal, filled with decent melodies and super sick vocals. Decent enough to stand out

-Crimson Midwinter (Fin) "Loneliness, Bitterness": This band have recently signed a deal with Black Mark, and are thus a very easy listening and solid Black/Death band. Too bad the group is filled with a army of homosexual capheads :(

CD 3: -Arkham (Fra) "The Dreams in the Witch House": Start out with a nice medieval sounding folk intro, and then blasts into some hyperblast black metal. Vocals are screamed at excellent levels, and the music is raw and violent enough to qualify as one of the standout tracks.

-Odium (Nor) "The Sad Realm of the Stars": Very modern day Norway sounding. Normally I can't stand this style, but it works well here. Sort of like a much faster version of Gehenna. Well done at least, and the fast paced synth section is great.

-Blazing Eternity (Den) "Over Sorte Heder": Hmmm...this really isn't that great a track, but the vocal/synth/guitar combination gives is a triumphant feel of sorts, and it deserves credit for that. Very powerful sounding, but too stereotypical too be *amazing*.

-Majestic Midnight (Fra) "Tristessa": YES!!!! More killer raw French black metal, but with some heavy synths. Someone give these lunatics a record deal!!! Super violent, super sick, and simply amazing hyperblast black metal. Vocals are insane, *very* grim sounding spoken sections...it all works perfectly. The only thing I can't stand about this track is how the band yell "TRRITEESSAAA" in unison at the beginning of the track. It sounds like the combination between a punk band, and a drunken wino begging for spare change :\

-Frozen Shadows (Can) "Return to Supremacy": The only non-European band on this compilation, and they still stand out. I already had their demo "Empries de Glace" and was fairly pleased with it, so this track was no surprise really. Very generic, but still above average fast black metal with some great blast beats.

Well, that it...I'm sure you'd like to see the running time as well ***72:58 + 73:50 + 75:47***= hours upon hours of black metal listening pleasure. And with 50 bands (of which I'd only heard from 16 before) I've gotten my money's worth. It's also introduced me to some unknown French bands, which was a surprise since I own over 20 French demos/CD's from the last few years. It's also proven to me that the French don't just make good food...they also make some killer black metal. If your going to buy one CD this month, let it be this one.

Velvet Music International BP 902 26009 Valence Cedex FRANCE

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