Sezarbil

Sezarbil - The Unknown Empire
Leviathan Records, 2000
Genre: Black Metal

1. Pagan's Wind
2. The Last Battle
3. Attack of Darkness
4. Prophetical Darkening...
5. The Curse of Painful Reality
6. Immortality Part II
7. The Unknown Empire
8. The Arrival of Lords of War
9. Wails of the Night
10. Géniové (Master's Hammer Cover)





This is Sezarbil's debut full length and after hearing their material on the three way split, I wasn't too excited about what they might have to offer. This release seems pretty difficult to find these days, so I guess I'm lucky to have found a copy of it. I do like the cover and album layout that goes with this project, but the music just isn't for me.

Sezarbil bring us another, mediocre performance, for lack of a better term. I don't think "The Unknown Empire" is outright a terrible release, nor do I think it is particularly stellar. I actually have a very neutral feel for most of this release. "The Last Battle" is a sort of more melancholic approach to Black Metal. It has lots of clean sections, relatively slow metal aspects all designed to build a sort of "dark" atmosphere. The problem is that it doesn't quite do that for me and there's nothing that really pulls me into the material. The next song is totally different with "Attack of Darkness", which has an excellent riff that hooks the listener in, but it really is just the one riff that works. Other parts of the song don't do anything for me, but that catchy riff is quite well done. The drastic change in song structuring is rather jarring, but in this case I welcome it because the opening track didn't set a very good stage for me. The rest of the songs seem to be more of a typical Black Metal approach, sometimes delving into something similar to "The Last Battle."

In the end there was just nothing that captured me on this recording. A lot of the Black Metal is highly derivative of the typical stuff being performed in the late '90s. I don't think it's done particular well, or else the derivative nature wouldn't bother me much and I would still garner some enjoyment. Right now Sezarbil are a band that just aren't performing a style that truly interests me.

Maniac Butcher/Sezarbil/Inferno - Proti Všem...
Pussy God Records, 1999
Genre: Black Metal

Maniac Butcher:
1. Metal from Hell
Sezarbil: Temný Sen
2. Varování
3. Temný Sen
4. Příprava K Boji
5. Zničení Církve Svaté
6. Immortality
Inferno: Chrám Nenávisti
7. Intro: V Prach A Popel Vše Obráceno Jest / Krev
8. Krajina Zasvěcená Ďáblu
9. Vládce Hor
10. Chrám Nenávisti / Outro: Dovršení Křesťanské Zkázy

Side Maniac Butcher: ...coming eventually...
Side Inferno: here

Sezarbil is another band where I give up on finding their demo material in any form. So we begin here with their three-way split limited to 666 copies of which I own #483. After finally sitting down to listen to the Sezarbil side (I honestly have tons of material I've owned for years, but never listened to), I'm glad I'm listening to this now after I've purchased their later full-lengths. I figured doing a split with Maniac Butcher and Inferno put your music on a higher caliber level, but I did not find the Sezarbil side of this very compelling.

Sezarbil play a rather odd form of Black Metal to me. They try to blend a very slow and plodding arrangement with some faster parts thrown in once and a while. Sometimes this can really work if the Black Metal is heavily atmospheric or haunting, but Sezarbil's approach is kind of dry and thin. It reminds me a little bit of what Maniac Butcher was performing on their demo material, but those were a very long time ago and recasting that approach with a modern band does not age well. Some parts are alright, but for the most part I found the music rather dry. "Zničení Církve Svaté" has a fairly catchy riffing sequence and is probably the most stand out track on their part of the split. Sezarbil close with a rawly recorded instrumental called "Immortality" originally recorded around 1996.

I have no idea where Sezarbil is heading from here, except that I've sampled their later releases and they were quite different and much better. I can sort of see why this material was never in high demand for a re-release. We'll see what Sezarbil do for their debut full length. For now, this music just didn't grab me.