Here is the latest offering from the battle front of the National Socialist Black metal scene, consisting of three French bands Kristallnacht, Blessed In Sin, and last but not least, Seigneur Voland. As many of you may well know, Kristallnacht, maybe the best known out of the three has already graced the masses with thier release of Warspirit, and a split with Morke. Therefore it seems fitting that they should have honors with opening up the cd. Starting with a very sombre keyboard passage, punctuated with the distant tolling of bells and chimes, Kristallnacht again succeed in bringing out feelings of desolation and sadness, lying far away in the distant past. But not for long! Next is a grim and speedy black metal track that, well... sounds like every other song they have ever recorded... except for the fact that they have incorporated a fairly bland and flat sounding drum machine in place of a real set. Really just average stuff. Next up is the great band Blessed in Sin, which is really just a conglomeration of different members of bands in the French Scene, namely funeral, Seigneur Voland, Kristallnacht, etc. "Himmelfabrtskommando" is a wonderful track, based on some clever trash riffing, and distant clean voices. About halfway through, the listener is brought into a very melancholy wall of keyboards and synths, which plays cleanly underneath a series of "seig Heils" and a genuine "Nationalistic" speech. This is clearly the best, and most thought out track on the split, and I look forward to grabbing a copy of their full length. Last up is Seineur Voland, with three tracks of standard generic black metal. That isin't to say it's bad, on the contrary, I believe it to be some of the best material I've heard. It's just not original to any extent. However: Hail to Xaphan for the supreme vocalls, and the Abruptum shirt. To close it off, there is a killer cover of Beherit's Gates Of Nanna, with a dual vocal arrangement courtesy of Blessed In Sin, and Xaphan. Well done lads, I look foreward to further material.

© 2001 orodruin