The Kovenant

The Kovenant - Animatronic
Nuclear Blast, 1999
Genre: Industrial Black Metal

1. Mirrors Paradise
2. New World Order
3. Mannequin
4. Sindrom
5. Jihad
6. The Human Abstract
7. Prophecies of Fire
8. In the Name of the Future
9. Spaceman (Babylon Zoo Cover)
10. The Birth of Tragedy

What would happen if Marilyn Manson actually knew what he was doing?  More shockingly... what if there were actual musicians involved? Talented ones.  Well The Kovenant is the answer to these questions.  Marilyn Manson as a musician had interesting ideas, just look at the soundtrack to Resident Evil, which was done by him.  It just seems that he can’t quite find musicians to portray his art in a talented manner.  Now The Kovenant is an extremely talented band, with Nagash behind the writing it takes things to a whole new level.  Now this is very different from Covenant.  Granted it is the same songwriter behind the material, but the music is inherently different.  It’s bordering more into an industrial era, rather than Covenant which leaned more towards Black Metal.  They had to change the name because there was already a band by the name of Covenant, so they were renamed them to The Kovenant, not exactly a shocking change, but with the name change came a totally different musical direction. 

If you don’t like industrial at all, then this is definitely an album you need to stay away from.  When I first heard this I thought it was an insult to Black Metal, because Nagash for the most part still used the Black Metal styled vocals, but honestly it works with the new sound.  I have always preferred Black Metal vocals over regular vocals anyways… possibly the reason why I can’t stand Power Metal, there’s no harsh vocals at all.  I would not go so far to say that this album was a triumph in ingenuity, for I feel And Oceans “A.M.G.O.D.” was a much better electronic oriented album.  There are great songs from time to time, such as “Jihad.”  The song actually had Arabic clean vocals at points and made the song really different to listen to compared to the rest of the songs.  Sarah Jezebel Diva I assume is the female vocals behind the female lines on this album since she was also used during “Nexus Polaris.”  However, on this release it seems her name was left out of the booklet.  Though, when it comes to sheer musicianship this album is very well thought out.  Is that a guitar solo I hear on a few songs?  I think it is, and there is no way the likes of Marilyn Manson could pull off something like these well thought out solos.  The musicianship is top notch and that cannot be denied whether you like the way it sounds or not.

Lyrically the songs are a little more thought out than your general Black Metal bands, but they still have the same themes throughout the whole album.  Basically religion is an oppression of mankind and humanity should try to free itself from this abhorrent faith.  They also touch upon at times how the world is doomed and we will most likely ultimately destroy ourselves.

Ultimately I found this to be a decent release, not exactly the type of album I’m going to be spinning frequently.  Some songs stand out more than others, such as “Sindrom,” “New World Order,” and “Jihad”; three stellar tracks that were defining and stand out points from my perspective.  However, like I said, if you’re not into industrial or highly experimental Black Metal then this is not the release you need to hear.  I know most people did not enjoy this and found it all too shocking to listen to and most people would compare it to Marilyn Manson.  While I do think Marilyn Manson had an influence on this, I don’t think Marilyn Manson could ever achieve writing something this good and substantial.  For whatever reason when Nagash sat down to work on this it just melded together very well.  He blended things perfectly, not pushing it out of metal too much, but keeping it centered there and pushing some boundaries.