Unlord
Gladiator
[Displeased]


Allow me to quote several utmost "veracious" and "modest" statements from the bio that came along with the promo copy of the latest album by these self-proclaimed "true survivors in the extreme black metal scene."

"Unlord is a North European black metal formation existing since 1989." Hmmm, fishy. "They recorded 3 demos in a period of 6 years which showed extreme black metal combined with songwriting." Black metal combined with songwriting? Well, ok, but here comes the juicy part. "Their latest demo was so incredibly good and strong, that they immidiately (sic) got a deal with Displeased Records." Aha, and what the hell were they thinking (I mean the label)? But that's not all. "You can immidiately (sic) hear the mystical, atmospheric yet brutal backgrounds of the members, who still remain unknown today despite the huge success of their first album." Eh? "Unlord's goal is not publicity about their music, they only want people to enjoy their black creations." Umm, I am sure. "Since Unlord does not want to be violated in their privacy they will not do any interviews, nor answer direct mail." Come on guys, just admit it. There is no shame in being gay. Is there? "Unlord will stick to their brilliant black metal style which they showed on their debut "Scharzwald." I haven't heard it despite, er, its huge success, but BRAND's review expresses a very peculiar opinion about it. "No trendy whimpy style, just great black metal the way the masters play it." Mmm, whatever you say.

In reality, this "great," "brilliant" black metal is basically what some people refer to as Norsecore, very boring and downtrodden at that. The music is mostly speed and blast with a few melodic passages here and there, and a little bit of keyboards. The handling of the instruments is very good from the purely technical standpoint, but the riffs are boring as hell, and the songs exude no real feel what so ever. If there are any emotions to be found here, they are all made of plastic. Very clear yet dry production doesn't do much for the music except adding more genericness.

One band member's alias is Gor-Gho-Phon. Quite an excellent choice Mr. Gor-Gho-Phag (couldn't resist throwing it in). Not that the rest of the band (Thorgrim (how original), Yhe (this guy must really have lots of imagination) and StabAss...oh, excuse me, it's Stabath) did any better.

If it wasn't already clear, this CD stinks. One good thing is that it came to my possession at a time when I needed someone to taunt and scoff at, and for that I thank you Unlord.


© 2000 boris