This tastefully packaged and excellently produced release from Estonia's very own Guano label (which made rapid elevation of the Estonian scene its main agenda) introduces us to two unknown but admirable local bands. Although both of them can be basically classified as black metal, both groups create modern sounding and pretty original music, and, therefore, tend to veer away from the rudiments of the genre.

There are four songs from each band. Interestingly enough, the tracks are not arranged in a conventional way. Instead the bands take turns with their songs. You get a song from one, then a song from the other, and so on. Kalm is easily my favorite. They are faster and more brutal of the two, but with imaginatively blended keyboards. In a way, Kalm managed to succeed where clinical rigidness of Satyricon's "Rebel Extravaganza" has failed. "Argates Unenaost" consists almost entirely of fast, sharp black metal and nearly hysterical screams, but switches to a short fragment of grooving, deathy riffs and clean guitars in the middle. "Olen Teist Tudinud" proceeds in a rather straightforward but fierce manner, with scathing guitar sound and an almost mechanical precision. "Uksinduse Kuningas" starts off with a romantic keyboard intro and then bursts into not-so-romantic, but very dynamic and masterful mélange of constantly shifting rhythms, varied guitar segments and spacy keyboard usage. "Verineid (C18u)," though, is a track that many people will have a problem with, and let me tell you why. It starts out very promising, in a plodding and atmospheric way, with some unique guitar twists. But at a certain point the band pause for a very brief moment and then resume with their usual style placed atop a layer of techno beats. This, of course, is where many of you will be screaming "What the fuck!" So, if you absolutely cannot tolerate anything remotely "techno" in your music, just skip this track. On the other hand, if you didn't mind those electronic excursions on Mayhem's last album, then be certain to cue in on this song.

On a rather tragic note, Kalm's leader - vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Alan was killed last year in a car accident. Sad really, since he was the heart and soul of the band, and without his presence the remaining members had nothing left to do but disband quietly.

Assamalla is a more mellow sounding band. With songs full of medium tempos, lavish keyboard arrangements and romantic atmosphere, their black metal approach resembles someone like Thy Serpent. And in fact, on tracks "Malestuses Langenud Tahtedele" and "Vaikusest Vaevatud (Meie Hing Ei Havi)" quite a few similarities to Thy Serpent can be detected. But Assamalla demonstrate just enough style of their own in order not to be reputed as someone else's clone. "...Kes Lahkunud Uksteise Sudameist" is a commendable exercise in epic beauty and atmosphere, while on "Kivisse Raiutuna" they chose to speed things up a bit, thus, managing to successfully inject more intensity into their atmospheric style.

This release paired up two very different bands, but because of the way the tracks are arranged, and because both bands were recording in the same studio, it might be a bit irksome trying to discern everything right away. Overall, I think many people will be able to find at least something enjoyable about this CD. If you won't like one of the bands, you might like the other, or maybe even both if you are open to all different styles of black metal.

© 2001 boris