Cauterizer – Then the Snow Fell
This band made the classic mistake of trying to make death metal a bouncy, jaunty, ironic hard rock genre at the time it was moving away from all that garbage. Had they tried it eight years later, they would have been Slipknot, but instead, they’re mostly forgotten. Sound is like old Therion and old Entombed played by Motley Crue.
Dissenter – Apocalypse of the Damned
We put Behemoth and Hate Eternal into a blender and got a highly competent effort that’s painful to listen to. Repetition of themes is aggressive, as is mirroring of similar rhythms throughout each piece, and like all metal made after 1995, there’s zero sense of dynamic, just a constant high-volume assault — a lot like hip-hop. A shame since these musicians are clearly above average in proficiency.
Eldrig – Kali
I wanted to like this. As atmosphere, it’s well-done; note choice is good, rhythm is good, dynamics are well done. As art, it’s a non-entity because there’s almost no change. It’s like Hindu-themed apocalyptic wallpaper.
Black Funeral – Vampyr: Throne of the Beast
This is an inverse review: all the Black Funeral albums other than this one are lesser. Vampyr is the peak. Seek Vampyr if you like Black Funeral.
Eldrig’s next (and most recent) release after "Kali" – "Everlasting War Divinity" is a lot more compositionally inclined. On a riff-by-riff basis, Kali is the better album, narrative in a similar way as the original riff to Burzum’s "My Journey to the Stars" was – but on EWD there appears to have been a conscious effort to portray conflict and overcoming rather than singular nationalism/apocalypse/whathaveyou.
Also, another project by Eldrig members, Fanisk, is of mention. Their second, "Noontide" is more interesting (perhaps not better) than anything Eldrig has thus far produced. Some of the first black metal I’ve heard that employs linear structure, and to relatively good effect.