Hmmm… few people have heard of this band, and I’ve never heard them prior to buying this CD but hell, this is an extremely good CD that shows obvious talent on the parts of the musicians. The style of music they play is basically Black Metal with a progressive feel to it… this album isn’t grim or evil at all, however, but it was still one of the rare albums that I really liked upon my first listening. Let’s break down this album a different way…

Guitars – The guitar playing on this album is utterly amazing, with extremely technical riffs, well-composed songs, and two guitars working perfectly together. I’ve never heard a better black metal guitarist; this is one of the only Black Metal bands today with players that can REALLY use their instruments. Flawless. 10/10

Vox – A session vocalist, cryptically named A. F. Fhinstha does lead vocals here, and while the vocals are definitely not bad, they’re not entirely good either… just slightly better-than-average Black Metal vox. The funny thing is that his vocals are quite supreme on some tracks and almost intolerable on some others, there’s no middle ground. I still quite liked the lead vocalist, however; the real annoyance is with the female and also the male operatic vocals (which are not done by A. F. Fhinstha). They’re HORRIBLE, luckily for us they only appear on a few songs… Lead Vox – good 8/10 - Clean Vox – Insufferable 0.5/10

Drums – The drums on this album are very proficiently done. With a lot of super-fast beats and an amazingly well produced double bass and snare drum. This drummer is, in my humble opinion, better than Hellhammer, Trym, Fenriz and 99.5% of the other drummers on the Black Metal scene today. Superb 9.9/10 (I only give 10/10s to completely perfect and flawless works of art…)

Synth – Synths are rarely employed here, but when they do it completely adds to the dark, symphonic quality of the music. Good – 8/10

Bass – The bass playing is just as good as the guitar playing, extremely well produced, and in very good taste. No annoying bass-lines or over-indulgences (a.k.a. Opeth)… Less is more. It should be noted that the guitars and bass are played by the same person. Flawless – 10/10

Production – The production here is truly amazing. You can clearly hear every instrument at any given time. The only problem is that the production here may be too good (!!), a friend of mine listened to the CD and disliked it instantly because of it’s lack of the evil atmosphere which usually comes with bad production. This is the complete opposite of Darkthrone style production quality, if you’re ok with that fact then you’ll love the excellent sound quality of this album. Superb 9.9/10

Overall – An extremely solid album that is a must have for all serious Black Metal collectors and musicians. The only thing I would ask for would have to be true satanic lyrics and not the weak vampyre lyrics they use… Satanism is the only true pillar of Black Metal… but you can’t have everything, I suppose…

Overall Score – 9.9/10



© 2000 sauron anarazel