OK, what are the BLACK LEGIONS doing in this new millennium ? Well, VLAD TEPES, TORGEIST, BLACK MURDER, BRENORITVREZORKRE or BELKETRE seem to be completely dead as no news from these bands have been heard for years. MÜTIILATION seemed to be the only survivor among these French extremists, but the release of this album by VERMETH earlier this year tends to show that Mordred is not the only member of this Elite Circle still playing music. This one man band is lead by Lord Beleth'Rim, who was also playing with TORGEIST in the past. So you can expect here some primitive black metal with an ugly-sounding production (exactly as TORGEIST on the split CD with VLAD TEPES, maybe a bit better here), a war drum machine that adds to the general atmosphere a "anti-human" side that I have to admit fits perfectly to the hatred developped by the band's songs. The voice is totally sick, screams of hatred and incantations come from Beleth'Rim's lungs and the result is a very frightening CD, really cold and that certainly deserves to be labelled as "Black Legions Metal". On the 5th track ("Unholy rapture"), you can hear a riff taken from MÜTIILATION's first EP "Hail Sathanas...", which shows you the true face of the Black Legion's music.This is a good thing, as MÜTIILATION's recent CDs were quite boring and presented only some "common" black metal, far away from the roots of this movement. Now we know it : the Black Legions are still alive in 2002 and they are still angry.

8 / 10

© 2003 lord pesten