And I thought Nastrond had improved during the period that took place between their demo and first CD! This is an even greater improvement, and easily one of the most interesting and original black metal releases from it's release year. Grinding, punishing, atmospheric, and simply psychotic are the key words when describing "Age of Fire". While "Toteslaut" was twisted and confusing, it lacked some elements that could have made it a standout disc. Luckily, the lads behind Nastrond have taken all of their previous original ideas, worked and twisted them, added a new and sickening feel to their music, and come up with a fantastic disc.

A spoken/simple intro starts the album out, and then quickly jumps into a second intro that has some bizarre techno influence, and an ultra-hateful spoken voice. The music then punishes you for forty-five minutes or so, a very interesting process if you don't mind my mentioning.

This is much better than the first CD. The insane riffs are still here, but the band have worked a good deal more on them, added some technical and wonderfully atmospheric synth work to their base. The vocals have also changed. Although they were great and dripped with evil in the first place, they now posses a much different distorted feel, which adds to the hateful "vibe" the album creates. Drumming is so fucking tight and brutal as well! What a grand CD!

The band have also perfected the art of intros/breaks/outros/etc. Take the track "Opening of the Mouth" for example. As with the other intros/outros this is fairly evil sounding, but there's also a simple and professional "speech" above the synth music. Listen to it, since it's quite interesting. Piano work also exists, bass solos, insane screaming….! An insane release, but also an excellent one. I look most forward to the next recording from this lot.

© 1997 brand