As everyone should know by now, this is Swedish black metal played by the guys from Hypocrisy. That should be enough to send most people running, but let’s try to judge this album solely on its musical merits (or lack thereof). In other words, if Britney Spears’ next album happened to sound a lot like Transilvanian Hunger, you should like it. This begs the question: if I found “The Other Side” lying on the street with no info on who or where it was from, would I enjoy it?

Well, the album does sound generic most of the time. However, I will say that a lot of the songs do possess what appears at least on the surface to be a certain sense of conviction and appreciation of some of the beauty to be found in this genre. Indeed, when this album first came out, I enjoyed most of the songs quite a bit. There is an interesting use of some weird operatic vocals and say what you will, some of those generic black metal riffs do get me going. However, the album doesn’t quite stand the test of time and it should be noted that in some parts it is quite soporific. And the last track, a random assortment of backwards samples and weird guitar sounds, is just a waste of everyone’s time.

So yes, generic black metal with some moments. Definitely not the worst release I’ve ever heard. If you’re a black metal junkie and black metal for you is like pizza, sex, and beer (i.e. even if it sucks, it’s still black metal/pizza/sex/beer) then by all means get this. Perhaps it can satisfy your ravenous appetite for a week or two. I play it maybe twice a year at this point and enjoy it fairly enough.

If however, you are sick and tired of all things formulaic and uninspired, I would advise to avoid pissing yourself off and go pick up Nargaroth’s Herbstleyd or Baltak’s Zagniatot Grad instead.

So, in conclusion, there’s plenty of worse stuff out there. But there’s also much much better to be found.

© 2002 the insider