Mayhemic Truth
In Memoriam
[Iron Pegasus]


Finally, the demo '96 and 'Cythraw' 7" are released as an official CD/LP by Iron Pegasus. The infamous duo have built up a strong reputation in the underground over the years - particularly amongst the German scene - and are quite deserving of it, in my opinion. I'd only heard the 7" before this, and was rather overwhelmed by it, so needless to say I grabbed this release as soon as I tracked it down.

And I was very far from disappointed after listening to it a half dozen times in a row. Bathory fans of course will be impressed with everything found on this CD. There's the raging and pure black metal sound of third LP Bathory, which rips in every way possible. But there's also the epic feel and clean vocals of "Hammerheart" (and to a lesser extent, the more solid clean vocals of "Blood on Ice"). Worship "Under the Sign…"? Then you'll truly appreciate tracks like "Morrigan" (yes, the drummer is called "Balor") and even more "Fire and Ice" (ABSOLUTE "Under the Sign" Worship…!!!). Beliar has a Quorthon ambience to his vocals even, particularly in how he screams (you know, Quorthon's infamous "AAAAAA"). Like the viking metal style of Bathory? Then tracks like ""When Thousand Candles Cry, and especially "Bluot Era Hathu" will blow you away. The later comes close to, if not surpasses anything Bathory ever did in their Viking metal days (although the vocals on the track are predominantly black metal) - this track is without a doubt a true masterpiece.

Enough said. If you like incredible metal, and especially Bathory (and if not, as in my review of the tribute album: FUCK OFF!), you'll end up listening to this non-stop for months. Now if Iron Pegasus would just re-release the Nema stuff on LP as well (and yes, the Zemial CD/LP is out now too!).


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