Carpathian Forest
Black Shining Leather
[Avantgarde]


Things change...or do they? I noticed immediately that things had probably changed around though upon hearing the title, and seeing track names like "pierced genitalia" (not to mention a Cure cover, "The Forest". I vaguely remember hearing this track on their re-mix album, but I can't remember it well enough to compare). Hmm..

The packaging is perfect. A glossy black and white digipak with dark artwork, photos, and the two most likely heroin addicted and/or AIDS infected band members looking happy.

The CD is seemingly a split between the two members, not unlike the original mCD which had some Hellhammer style tracks, and longer, drawn out Burzum paced ones. Nattefrost's tracks have violent and morbidly sexual lyrics, while Nordavind's are mostly obscure and somewhat more typical black metal. Nattefrost's tracks remind me especially of Celtic Frost. Fuck, some of the riffs seem to truly emulate "Into the Crypt of Rays" (just listen to Sadomasochistic!!). On the other hand, Nordavind's music sounds more like Darkthrone, with added keyboards here and there to produce that cold, CF sound.

A semi-solid disc still. I don't think this band could do too much wrong. And for those of you worried about a massive style change due to the title, it's not really here. The lyrics have simply become more disturbed.


© 1999 brand