As a praise to all that is vile, malevolent and ugly in the world, a collection of old and unreleased recordings of Krieg are released here on a CD that lasts for over an hour. Krieg has never been a band for even the majority of the black metal audience, being much too intoxicated and hateful for anyone with their senses intact. The Black Plague gathers together some material which, I have to admit, goes too low even for my tastes. Krieg has put together more than one coherent full-length album compact with a criminal mentality yet without totally discriminating the unprejudiced listener; usually Krieg has ideas. Most of this collection is filled with fragmentary songs of minimalistic black metal approaching noise in intensity. All the fans of Krieg will want to own this and it can also serve as an introduction to this US band, but personally I would take most of the other releases over this. The ideological content of The Black Plague seems to be stated in the cover: “Kill yourself or someone you love.”

I can hear the psychopathic tendencies of the US underground presenting themselves in the futile manner of a wolf that has lost most of its teeth. The hardcore scene is full of this social angst that I hate. If Krieg didn’t hate christianity so much, he’d make for a good straightedge man. Ok, now that I have had the chance to spout this blasphemy at the unholy Krieg cult, I can conclude that Krieg remains one of the strongest forces in the black metal underground that I have seen emerging in the turn of the millennium. Prepare yourselves for a black ash snowfall.

© 2002 black hate