The phrase "it's about fucking time!" comes to mind when contemplating this release. It's been roughly 14 years since this was first released, and a great number of those spent with this being out of print and a much sought after relic of metaldom (I've always liked to refer to the original combat CD version of this as the "holy grail of death/black metal"), and ever since Century Media announced they had acquired the (European) rights to this, many of us have been salivating patiently while waiting for this to finally see the light of day. On a related note : fuck Relativity Records....apparently these ass bangers wouldn't sell off the north American rights to this album, even though they've had them in their possession ever since they bought out and then dismantled Combat Records. They have been vehemently fucking the dog with regards to this classic opus, and I say boycott their fucking reissue of this when it comes out - punish these cocksuckers for depriving the world of such a great fucking album for so long.

Now with that off my chest, lets continue. Seven Churches is an absolute essential. If you've never heard this, then forget everything you think you know about death/black metal, as you don't know shit. This album right here is the birthing of the "death metal" genre - all you weenies who claim Death invented the style will be sadly proven wrong once you hear what a HUGE influence this played on Scream Bloody Gore (just compare SBG to the old Death demos, and then to this). From the opening Tubular Bells like intro of "The Exorcist" to the final proclamation of "Death Metal" in the song of the same name, this album is a pure classic which still stands the test of time when compared to a lot of today's pretenders to the throne. Try to imagine what Slayer's "Hell Awaits" would have sounded like if it was twice as fast and twice as heavy, and you might begin to have some idea of what this album is like. The vocals are voracious (and were completely mimicked by Evil Chuck), the guitar and bass are both in your face and sharp enough to slice through concrete, and the drums very powerful sounding (although some might have reservations about the way Mike Sus plays "melodies" on his drums - you have to hear it to understand I suppose). Mr Randy Burns produced this album, and he did a fine fucking job - everything is clear and spacious sounding, without losing any of its heaviness. And to top it all off, there isn't one bad song in the lot of them - 10 tracks, 40 minutes of sheer fucking genius. Buy or die...

© 1999 chorazaim