Burzum "Belus" Byelobog Productions Where do you start? The years it took for Immortal to return are nothing compared to the return of Burzum. And it´s basically as if time has stood still all these years. The well established trademark guitar sound is here, much like on “Filosofem”, the monotonous yet melodic songs are incorporated into a melancholic aura. Although here there is a much stronger presence of dreamlike tranquillity, calmness that, in combination with withdrawn melodies and the repetitive guitars, creates a rich sonic expression. The vocals range from the more destructive and harsh Black Metal style to the more “humanlike” down-to-earth sung words. The destructive, ugly ingredients are not recorded with anger or hate, the whole album seems well balanced and poised. The songs’ fluidity, how they match each other, secure an immediate repeat. And this is material that, given time, grows and finds its place. Burzum does not repeat himself on this album; the gaze is set toward the future, yet within a musical history that is unforgettable. If this is the start of Burzum’s second chapter, well, then I can´t wait for what the future will bring. J. Loon

Alverg "Elde" Soulseller Records This band, from the south of Norway, have produced a debut album that is all about harmonies and slow melodies. After a short piano intro, the opening track on this album is very much in the vein of Gehenna´s “First Spell” mini-album. And even though this is the only songs that bring my mind to other bands, it´s obvious that the entire album is based on the same simple ideas: slow melodies and tunes of harmonic Metal. Not bad, but it all goes in the same path for a full hour, nothing pops up as a contrast, no smaller pathways are checked out, and well, it´s perhaps too nice and polished and one dimensional. But it´s composed well, even though it is extremely safe, and therefore quickly forgotten. Metal goes lounge music? Worthless

Amber Asylum "Bitter River" Profound Lore Records If you´re off the Metal path now and then, Amber Asylum might be a musical source you´re aware of. Tender classical inspired music, where fusing together sonic layers is welcomed rather than pushed away. In no way a one-track band, this album is no exception either. The melancholia, both in spirit and instrumental expression, is overwhelming. It calls for calm surroundings, background music among friends, or alone in full concentration within the music. The violin is underlining the tenderness in the compositions, as well as creating an even stronger presence of melancholy. It´s an hour long album, equally as beautiful as it is introspective, haunting and dreamlike. Lilly

Aosoth "Ashes of Angels" Agonia Records The second album from “the sick Black Metal band”. Aosoth is a project by MkM from French Antaeus and “brings a more sick approach, based on years of excess (excess of what?) and the obvious increasing hatred within.” Right. But not bad. Not at all. Aosoth is traditional Black Metal with little care for melodies and much inspiration from Dark Funeral and Marduk. Nothing new on this album either, but the band compensate with an absolute window-smashing fury performed with glass-breaking speed. The spirit of Aosoth´s father-band Antaeus is “anti-god, anti-music, anti- you”, and they have made albums with the simple title “Cut Your Flesh And Worship Satan”, and statements like “Everything great is built on sorrow”. Interesting. “Ashes of Angels” is an album on fire with hatred and rage. The songs creates visions of spikes, corpse paint, razors and nails. Of churches ablaze and burning, cemeteries terrorised, an all out assault against the Norwegian way of life. Aosoth is hammering nostalgia into their music. This is only their second album, but the band members seems highly experienced both in their composing and performance. Okay, the complete lack of variation cannot be completely ignored, and the last parts of the album becomes, to some degree, tiresome. But no matter what, this is most definitely better than most bands today. The album finish with a cover of Antaeus themselves, which is inseparable from the rest of the album. But Antaeus, Aosoth, whatever what, this album is good, at times outright excellent. ThomasF

Archaic "The Time Has Come to Envy the Dead" VIC Records This Hungarian band has trashed Budapest, and when that was done they recorded an album which is titled with a twist of the old cold war prophecy “The living will envy the dead”. I do that already. And the cover is fascinating. It could perhaps been done better, but the idea itself is brilliant: The living imprisoned in coffins with the dead dancing above. That’s the way! The press info tells listeners that they can, among other things, “Forget German Thrash metal”, because “Now you can get ARCHAIC!” But wait, there’s more! We’re also told that the band is “ambitious and young”. JUST the kind of info no one can ever live without. The music is metal, thrash, stripped to bone. The tempo is max, although a few more atmospheric parts appear. There’s some really good bits and pieces scattered around the album. Every now and then a high quality riff appears, but the band too seldom build upon it. Often the songs are promising, but when they´re about to gain momentum some standard parts or low level riffs appears and rips the carpet away from the music. The songs seem unnecessarily complicated, the band tries to put too much into them, to do everything at once. The instrumental part in “Memory” is good with a really intriguing guitar sound, but in the end it turn into just another moment which passes away. There is some good music here, but just too much noise. If some surgery had been applied to the album, and the best part removed and transplanted into an EP, that one would have been great. Instead, the band appears talented but chaotic. On top of being “young and ambitious” of course. Perhaps one should wait a LITTLE bit longer before one “Forgets German Thrash metal”. ThomasF

Beyond Dawn "Bygones" Duplicate Records Beyond Dawn have some releases to look back on, and now they’ve decided to re-release the whole lot. Starting off, in chronological order, with a compilation of early Ep’s, demo’s and rehearsal tracks. Some pre-released on vinyl and some unreleased stuff from 1991 to 1994. The first part is probably the most recognizable, alternative Rock with moanin’ vocals and the very special use of trombone, which later on proved to be a trademark for Beyond Dawn. This shows that the band stalked out their own sound pretty early. Further out on “Bygones”, older material appear and reveal their original outfit, and I, for one, was quite surprised how infernal this really was. Twisted Black Metal with necro-distorted sound with both Black and Death vocals. Beyond Dawn was a part of the, soon to be sensational, Norwegian Black Metal origin, in the phase were it was just rumbling in the ground and started to shake the foundation of the common people. However, despite all this, the Black Metal they performed was not similar to what we’re used to. The structures were unpredictable and the tempo was progressively staccato. It seems that Beyond Dawn falls to the side line of any genre that is put to them. That’s why they’ve always been a band that annoy the listener as much as giving them joy. I was, just for fun, putting on more recent Beyond Dawn material, to compare it to this and the difference is phenomenal. The “Frysh” album is a light Pop album, way out alternative, mind you, but still. So, this release is either for the true fans of the band or true fans of the beginning of the Norwegian Black Metal movement. It will be interesting to follow this re-release package, and see what secret tracks that will be conjured out in the open as bonus treats. I also hope the remix album “We’re Down With Species of Any Kind”, that only got out on vinyl, will be chosen to be released on CD… Luna

Blood of the Prophets "A Prayer For Vengeance" This album opens with a quite good intro, but what follows is yet another band playing music which at least a two digit number of bands have done before. Blood of the Prophets play Death Metal “with contemporary influences”, but most of the album sounds like it could’ve been made in the early nineties anyway. The structure of the songs are typical and traditional, it’s Death Metal like it has always been and like it seems to always be. In fairness the band has created a more melodic sound than expected, but they could have pushed it much further than they do on this album, their debut. The songs are okay, they’re acceptable, but none of them stands out, several becoming outright boring. Nothing new, and then the riffs needs to be more than “okay” to be remembered. A few more atmospheric parts are in fact hidden within, but they are buried in the general brutality. “The Curse of Ignorance” needs to be pointed out however. The song are performed with both death and female vocals, and in THIS kind of Death Metal it´s rare, but it doesn’t matter much, it didn’t really work anyway. The band needs improvement and freshness, and fast, but in fairness it’s a debut and no worse than competent. But this genre most certainly needs more than yet another band that is “competent”. ThomasF

Bornholm "March For Glory and Revenge" Vic Records Hungary’s “Most promising and exciting Black Metal band” have taken their name from a Danish island because “Some Longobards living there later made a journey to Carpathaia and joined Hungarian Pagans in the 5th Century BC.” Longobards?? Unfortunately we don’t get any more info about this interesting species, but it sounds like a strange kind of gorilla or something. Bornholm seems further confused about their identity in the lyrics. They sing about “oh, cold Carpathian wind”, then change into “The land of Thule” followed by some praise to “Odin” and “Wotan”, before they finish off with telling that they’re “Sons of Mannus” (what?) and that “Twilight has come to the fall of Rome”. Musically the album is described as “nine well composed and very atmospherical songs which are complex and fast yet melodic and catchy.” Not ONE word of this is true. Well, actually it is, the music IS melodic, in fairness that much is true. But the album is not “well composed and atmospheric”. The songs are standard and traditional, no more, no less. The band tries to create atmosphere every now and then, but unfortunately it takes a bit more than some slower moments and instrumental parts to create atmosphere. And no fucking way these songs are “complex”. No way at all! That in itself is no problem of course, but the music is too predictable, the quality of melodies and riffs rarely good enough to make the songs more than listenable. The music is not particularly fast either, at least not compared to say Dark Funeral. And it´s most certainly not “catchy”, although I’ve heard far worse. Bornholm is a competent band. Their songs are listenable enough, not boring, but far from memorable. Freshness and intensity is what this band most definitely needs. So far their geographical abilities are more impressive than the musical ones. ThomasF

Denial "Catacombs of the Grotesque" Asphyxiate Recordings Spot on Death Metal, these Mexicans know how to get the best out of their talents. Several of the musicians here have their roots in Cenotaph, while this outfit here is more to my liking than Cenotaph ever was. The sound is massive and strong, the variation in the tunes nice and the power in the music only that of excellent Death Metal. Some of the tracks here kind of blew me away with its intensity and sheer brutality. They bring Death Metal one step forward, even though the album have its fair share of fillers. There´s also a good little presence of some groove within the tracks, which also add to the variation and catchiness. Denial bring you some killer tunes of ultra powerful Death Metal. If you enjoy that, you should enjoy this one. Andre P.

Die Hard "Nihilistic Vision" Agonia Records Having taken their name from a Venom song; there´s no problem finding obvious links and inspiration from the same band in the music on this debut album. Die Hard from Sweden are doing their stuff well. They have a good variation within the strict traditional way of playing music; all hooked back to the 80´s. The combination of Thrash and Heavy Metal works well, even though it´s not something that will blow you off your chair due to innovation or musical genius. To this date, I haven´t heard one band that base their music on the 80´s style and combine it with some innovation, Die Hard is no exception here either. If you love the past this album will offer you a good dose of harsh and nicely composed Metal, with a stereotypical “Hail Satan” introduction to the CD. If you´re looking for something new, this one´s not for you. Worthless

Dødsferd "Suicide and the rest of Your Kind Will Follow" Moribund Records This album presents music at its most far away and alienated. Previous album titles like “Desecrating the Spirit of Life” and “Cursing Your Will to Live” shows a band bereft of any hope or pity. Dodsferd released their first demo in 2oo3 and has shown a merciless productivity since then, “Suicide…” being their fourth album in two years. Actually this is the second part of a trilogy, following “Death Set the Beginning…” from 2oo8. That one was based on “punchy, rocking hatred-hymns”, but this album goes in a very different direction. Thorns and Godflesh mirrors the music now. While Abruptum and Shining (Sweden) are still close in spirit and emotion. 36 minutes with music is divided in just two songs, and they themselves could easily have been united as one and performed until the CD had run out of space. This kind of music gets to a point where it doesn’t matter whether it stops or goes on forever. The songs are ultra- monotonous and slow. Even Godflesh varied their songs more than this band. I can’t even say for sure if there is a real drummer here, and the guitars sound like they could have been played by a machine too. The music creates visions of a nuclear winter; a dead world liberated from any kind of life, where only a handful of machines are left to produce a metallic postludium. “Suicide…” is basically the same; a few riffs repeated over and over again, churning and crunching, crunching and grinding, a soundtrack to mass graves, maggots, ruins and rats. The machinelike structure goes on and on, but without getting boring, the utter repetitions almost addictive. The soundtrack of a future still not here, but certain to descend. The beat and the bones of the songs are well constructed, with a hypnotising quality like an ambient album on an autopsy table. The vocals are perhaps not completely in synch with the music. They are a bit too high, shrill, and a darker voice would have reflected the music better. Still, this is a minor point, the album have really only one weakness, but that one darkens every single minute. The production is too thin, cheap and simple. It’s okay enough, but beyond the songs one can sense the album that might have been, and that somehow gives a fascinating touch to the tunes, imagining what they could have been like. The music is like watching an open grave instead of being right inside the coffin. But Dødsferd is definitely heading in the right direction, future albums should surely take them six feet deeper. But while the musical values of the band are undisputed, the moral ones are more doubtful. Like Shining and Abruptum before them Dødsferd seems to promote suicide and self-destruction. Shining, for example, claims their music have been a contributing factor in a number of suicides and states this like it was something to be proud of. Those who are suicidal and destroyed are too often those most alienated from the system, the world, and the values of the world, and therefore no longer enslaved –“Total freedom means having nothing left to lose”. Sadly, the bands who are the most musically liberated have chosen to target those they resemble the most. But Wrath, the soul and engine of Dødsferd, is unlikely to care about that in the slightest. He puts it simple: “I have no feelings for the world.” ThomasF

Goreaphobia "Mortal Repulsion" Ibex Moon Records Ups and downs, the history of this band could have made up an interesting short story indeed. But while Goreaphobia have collected dust for years, the main composer has been involved in other acts; like Blood Storm and Absu. The roots of this old school Death Metal are for the purists of the genre; it´s raw and unpolished with no room for obvious crossover tendencies; despite a useless guitar solo now and then. It´s pretty much the late 80´s being brought back again, the serious approach and the dark Death Metal that used to be. No jumping up and down, Goreaphobia bring the past and the present together on this album of sincere Death Metal. Not a classic, but recommended for the die hard fans of the genre. Scum

HOD "Serpent" Ibex Moon Records This is the type of album you can listen to over and over again, and by the end of each turn you´ve taken with the album, you simply cannot remember a damn riff or cool part in the music. Insignificant; to say the least! Boring too, but with a fractured expression, this might still appeal to the underground dwellers within the Death Metal genre. Even though they seem serious with what they are doing, the music has become a slave to tradition and HOD basically just repeat others. And that´s not interesting. Scum

In Memorium "Lost To Antiquity" Moribund Records This is Black Metal at its most naked and basic, within coffinlike limits. The lid is still closed, but the songs came fairly close to breaking right out in the end. At its best this is intense and heartbanging. This kind of Black Metal, with its generally simple song structure and lack of variation, so often collapse into the boring. But In Memorium express enough talent in their riffs and performance to keep the attention for huge parts; the music is merciless but uneven, headhammering parts turning boring, then gaining power once again. Some darker and more doomlike parts appears every now and then in a welcome contrast to the general aggression, although they could have been used still more. The opening of the title song for example is bleakly atmospheric. And the instrumental part in the middle of “One Above All” gives an extra touch to the music, a shame it didn’t last longer. The engine of the album is metallic and black, equipped with razor-sharp pieces. Others are more than a bit rusted however. Several parts, perhaps a third or fourth of the music, decreases into the boring, the band unable to compensate predictability with the necessary freshness. Some pieces even sounds like they could have been dug up from the classic death metal era in the mid-nineties, which is absolutely not meant as praise in the slightest. Some surgery and amputations would definitely made the music healthier, but stronger moments appears steadily throughout the album. There is a feeling of darkness and decay somehow, a sense of underground and days gone by. Another review on this site described an album as “No Black Metal feeling, just Black Metal songs.” In Memorium express a metallic and black feeling, and the intentions can be sensed even when they aren’t fulfilled. This machinery needs some less predictable parts and pieces, but the fuel itself burns bright and black. The band has still not reached its full potential, but the way they’re developing is blackening. So far. ThomasF

Ravens Creed "Albion Thunder" Doomentia Records There´s no chance you would guess this band came from anywhere outside Great Britain, I would dare say. Ravens Creed have a timeless yet retrospective sound, cool tunes with variation and a good composition that make the entire album a positive surprise. The songs go from Venom inspired, injected with some doomy sludge, to more heavy and powerful Metal bearing the exclusive trademark of this band. The members have a long history behind them in other bands; no wonder why this one feels so mature and secure; they have no need to search for their own style on this debut. Cool Metal with a heavy sound and songs that are easily digestable. Scum

Sado Sathanas "Opus Diaboli" Black Blood Records Can you imagine a CD that has a playing time of 73 minutes, without a single second that is interesting! Fucking amazing! Well, not amazing, but a waste of time, for sure. This German band have put together insignificant music that rely on super kind and harmonic riffs and melodies, ignoring the fact that Black Metal should be dark and evil, or at least not sounding insignificant and inviting. This is just average musical skills, stupid looking dudes with child-corpse paint, dull synth, uninteresting vocals, no charisma and easily and album you ought to ignore. Unholy

Satan´s Host "Power – Purity – Perfection 999" Moribund Records Oh no! An American Death Metal band titled Satan’s Host with no less than four inverted crosses in their logo. This is bound to be another ultra brutal, but ultra boring band removing earwax with sheer, utter boredom. But wait. The brains of this Death Metal band is actually a guitarist about the age of Ozzy Osbourne himself. Patrick Evil began Satan’s Host in 1977, and it took them nine years to release their debut with the nice title – “Metal From Hell”. And then the band created some real magic. The disappearing act magic. It took 14 years before they were heard from again, self-releasing an album in 2000, which was followed four years later with another memorable title “Burning The Born Again”. Musically this was a surprise too. It’s Death Metal, yes, but a lot more. They claim to “invoke classic Heavy Metal structures taken to epic extremes”. “Epic extremes” is exaggerating, but the Heavy Metal influences are there, shrouding the album in some excellent 80’s melodies and guitar parts. Even the Death Metal elements are good. Unlike so many others the band performs them with identity. The songs are not on a great or classic level, but way better than the average. Combined with the melodic and Heavy metallic parts, the result is an album which clearly stands out from the average. OK, Satan’s Host haven’t completely managed to avoid the boring brutality of this genre, but with 33 years of experience they have learned quite a lot about The Metal of Death. ThomasF

Svölk "Svölk" Tabu Recordings Wow. This is an important moment in the Norwegian music history. Perhaps the most important moment ever, because this is the start of a whole new era. This is, big roll of drums, BEAR metal. It’s actually TRUE Norwegian Bear Metal. Not only that, Svölk is “The founding fathers of true Norwegian Bear metal”. The cover shows a Norwegian brown bear which looks mightily pissed off. But for some reason the music SOUNDS just like ordinary rock. Strange… The spiritual and emotional message of this music seems to be drunkenness, party, party, and then some more drunkenness on top. The songs are fairly traditional rock with lot of punch and little of finesse. A crappy production also helps a lot in decreasing the quality. Some nice parts and pieces appears occasionally, but the album becomes predictable to a huge degree. The longer the album lasts the more alike the songs become, even if the production must take some of the blame for that. And worse, there is nothing new, nothing unexpected here. Even without having much expertise on this kind of music it all sounds like I have heard it all before. Typical and traditional rock from beginning to end, and this genre wasn’t too interesting in the first place either. If Svolk had at least tried to add some unexpected turns or used ideas from other genres it would have helped, but the longer the album lasts the more it sounds like they’re complete posers, they’re just PRETENDING to play true Bear Metal. But ok, in fairness the strong points should be pointed out also. The songs have occasionally been spiced with some pretty good guitar parts, the opening of and the instrumental parts of “Inferno” for example. Ordinary or not, it does rock, the punch is there, even if the overall impression too often becomes anonymous. Svolk does properly have a much larger potential live than what they express here, this is JUST the kind of music which would make a drunken audience go nuts. But “True Bear Metal” it is not. ThomasF

Sycronomica "Gyroscope" Silverwolf Productions The third album from this German band is “destined to become a must-have for fans of Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth” and blah, blah, blah. Liars. This is not “destined” to become anything! Sycronomica is melodic, synth based Black Metal, but the music is far from acceptable. The album is too long for one thing. There are some good parts and melodies here every now and then, but they can’t help the songs from getting more and more tiresome. The music does properly have a larger potential than this album shows, but the production ruins everything. “Gyroscope” seems to have been produced without any care whatsoever. The band might have gotten away with it if they had played basic, guitar-based Black Metal, but with so much emphasis on the “symphonic” elements the production ravages the songs completely. It’s like someone making food without bothering to prepare the ingredients separately, but just dumps everything into one big kettle, turns the oven on maximum power and leaves it to burn. The intro was promising, but I lost my appetite before the first song was finished. ThomasF

Temple of Baal "Lightslaying Rituals" Agonia Records Well, there´s nothing new being brought forth from the intense speed this album offer. This French act, with members linked to Antaeus and Glorior Belli, play some very fast and intense Death Metal infused with some Black nuances. The speed is overwhelming for the majority of this album, without really doing much for the overall impression. Temple of Baal, regardless of their intentions, do not come up with music that is special; this is yet another album that sounds ok, but for the most part is uninteresting as it doesn´t surprise or convince. It´s fast and intense, that´s the only words worth mentioning about this album. Unholy

Vanmakt "Av Luciferi Regnum" Pulverised Records Probably an album you have ignored, but still, the level of crap and imitation is overwhelming and quite funny. This is just unoriginal music, and the lack of musical creativity impressive; for the wrong reasons. Vanmakt, hailing from Sweden, are doing their best to sound like idiots without character or musical personality. And they´re succeeding great (laughs). This sucks! Plastic sounding Black Metal with Heavy Metal tendencies, fast and with a certain Swedish touch. But stay away, they only duplicate. It´s like buying a bootleg shirt of a band you like, and the print starts falling off after the first wash. J. Loon

Vulvark "Vulvark" Ván Records With the album from this one-man band from Germany, be sure; it´s not an album you put on for the melodies. This one is played for the atmospheres and the feelings that dwells within the sonic layers. And the sonic layers are unique and quite threatening. Spray painted with a thick layer of grey mud, Vulvark combine a wall of fuzz with a world that is in an ever changing shape. The vocals are of the grim style – shrieks, not singing. The guitars have a very odd yet effective position on this album. And the motion in the music is a great positive aspect, if you´re in for an investigation. It does not come easy. I often enjoy an album that I just instantly can get into, though now and then the mind needs an obstacle, a wall to climb over; and what an experience it really is when you´ve climbed the wall and found yourself on the other side, an experience richer. Give Vulvark a go, have time on your hand and I am convinced you will get the same feeling as I got. The melodies becomes brighter and clearer for each listen, the structure takes on a wonderful and unpredictable shape, and the listening session is a tough one, but wonderful to hear music that is basically off the wall, yet elegant at casting shadows on a music style that is ugly and beautiful at the same time. There´s something odd surrounding this album, something unexplainable. And the guitar parts on the second track is phenomenal! The music and atmosphere grows with each spin, a never ending spiral of an album. Patronizer

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