Some bands should have stopped (or changed their names) after releasing a couple of CDs. This is the case for ENTHRONED, because if you compare the band's demos and first two CDs to the recent releases you can't imagine it's the same band playing ! "Prophecies..." is the first ENTHRONED CD, it contains many songs from their 1994 promo tape, remastered and re-recorded for this album. The music is not really pagan black metal as the title could suggest, it's just some fast satanic black metal (with some keyboard touch), but this CD features the best music you can find for this style together with the first MARDUK or DARK FUNERAL albums. Production is excellent, far from the cliché "Abyss sound" that so many acts in the style have used since 1994/95, vocals are aggressive, strident and hateful, most guitar riffs sound like the best moments of the Norwegian scene, even if they are a bit different and show a very personal touch brought by these Belgians, which is a proof that at the time they had their personal style and didn't try to copy any other band. Guitar parts are absolutely powerful, the band managed to create a huge number of killer riffs on this album. I know many people still prefer their second album, but this one is my favourite. It contains many of the band's classics and just listen to the last track, "When the wolves howl again" to realise they really had that "pestilential" feeling that makes the difference between an "average" or "good" BM album and a "killer" masterpiece... Even if the original edition is out of press, Blackend re-released this CD 2 years ago with a bonus CD containing live and demo songs, so you have no excuse not to have this jewel at home.

9.5 / 10

© 2003 lord pesten