Saturday, December 8, 2018

Mascharat


Mascharat - Mascharat
Seance Records, 2017
Genre: Black Metal

1. Intro
2. Bauta
3. Médecin de peste
4. Mora
5. Vestibolo
6. Simulacri
7. Iniziazione
8. Rito
9. Outro







Mascharat is a new and very excellent Black Metal project coming out of Milan, Italy. It's not surprising to look at their discography and see only one demo before being snatched up by Seance Records. Seance Records has become a mark of quality for me with a good amount of very strong releases and I'm always interested to see what that label releases and Mascharat's debut is absolutely no exception in the quality department.

Mascharat blends together a lot of various forms of Black Metal I like culminating in quite an impressive debut album. Mascharat have this great raw Black Metal sound, but it's mixed well enough that we can hear everything quite well while still having that raw sharpness to the overall sound. Mascharat is a bit of a melting pot of Black Metal from all over Europe, but I think the primary sounds are Italian and French. Italian is obvious, they have that sort of Tenebrae in Perpetuum raw quality with some classic Italian projects like Necromass in the mix. A lot of their riffing and chord choices remind me a lot of the French bands, such as Mütiilation. Even the guitar tone reminds me of Mütiilation at times. Vocally they remind me a lot of Dim from Tymah, which is wonderful as Dim is one of the best vocalists out there, so to even compete on her level is rather impressive. This all makes for an exquisite blend in itself, but you throw in the sections that have this medieval quality to them or renaissance feel, then you have something truly well made. Mascharat don't try to wow us with speed or take on an overly brooding nature, instead they keep a comfortable mid-pace and keep our attention with songwriting.

The booklet is quite simple but well designed. I appreciate the fact that they provided the Italian lyrics the songs are sung in as well as translations in English. The way they handled layout for this is reminiscent of a modern translation of an old book, which features both texts. The one and only complaint I can truly level at this is that when the discs were pressed a few seconds of silence was inserted between songs, but the way these songs are composed there should be no silence between the songs at all. The silence is kind of a jarring experience when it shows up between songs, so it's a shame this happened. Hopefully if they do something similar in the future they'll force a repressing of the disc.

In the end I hope more people will check out Mascharat. They sort of fall into that occult Black Metal area, but I think they manage to do it in a such a way that they don't sound too generic. This is an excellent start to a new project and I'm definitely curious where they will take us next, because they are certainly working with a very strong foundation.


Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Khold


Khold - Til endes
Peaceville Records, 2014
Genre: Black Metal

1. Myr
2. Skogens øye
3. Ravnestrupe
4. Dommens armé (Sepultura cover)
5. Til endes
6. Det dunkle dyp
7. Avund
8. Bengitt







It's actually been so long since we've heard from Khold that I, honestly, thought the project was done. But then a couple years ago a new Tulus surfaced and then a couple years later a new Khold was announced. Being a fan of the project I naturally picked up my copy as soon as it was released. When I first put this on, I don't think I gave it the appreciation it really deserved. "Til endes" is very much a Khold album through and through, but their are some subtle differences that make this album really stand out for me.

"Til endes" is the album I wanted "Hundre år gammal" to be. Those freezing Black Metal riffs are back in force on this album! They certainly haven't lost their groove at all and this album is more akin to their early releases. One of the major differences between this album and the earlier is how much harder it seems to hit. The songwriting hasn't changed for the most part, so I think a lot of that hard hitting feel has more to do with the production this time around. That being said, "Til endes" is, basically, the perfect production quality for a Khold album. The drum mix alone is astonishing. Everything things is so punchy and clear that it just makes those groovier riffs hit so much harder. I feel like this studio did a much better job of dealing with the bass guitar mix, which also stands out and just hits a lot harder. They've always had some interesting bass sections show up, but the bass tone feels so much heavier and clear this time around. So, if you've been following the project for a while, you're in for a real treat this time around, because the overall listening experience is simply excellent. For the first time they've also done a cover song and if you recognized "Dommens armé" as "Troops of Doom" by Sepultura you are correct. Khold have recast the song in their style a little bit, while still staying fairly true to the original, but it is no doubt a Black Metal version of that song.

"Til endes" is by far the heaviest Khold album out there and I enjoyed every song on here. They kept an excellent balance of fast Black Metal riffs blended with groove just like the good old days. The song "Det dunkle dyp" is by far one of the stand out tracks for me. It has a catchiness that is unrivaled on the album. It's a shame I didn't give this album the time it really deserved when it came out, but a few years later I really took the time to listen to this and it really stands out in their discography as far as I'm concerned.

Khold - Hundre år gammal
Tabu Recordings, 2008
Genre: Black Metal

1. Der kulden rår
2. Kor
3. Hundre år gammal
4. Troløs
5. Forrykt
6. Rekvim
7. Villfaren
8. Sann ditt svik
9. Mester og trell
10. Straff
11. Bønn





It's actually been quite a while since we've heard from Khold, some of that probably has to do with the fact that the members have also resurrected Tulus from the ashes and put out an album last year. However, this year we have a new Khold and after my lackluster experience with "Krek" I was hoping for something a little better.

"Hundre år gammal" is actually pretty similar in approach to "Krek", but the compositions work way more this time around. They finally figured out how to write more slow and plodding songs with groove and atmosphere. A lot of the songs on "Krek" felt disjointed or just fell flat, but "Hundre år gammal" has that atmosphere and power that I've come to expect from Khold. Personally, I prefer their faster material over this, but I can't deny the fact that they've figured out how to write material that sounds more cohesive this time around. I think they wanted to create a far heavier album and you can really create that kind of crushing feel with slower songs and the problems on "Krek" were probably related to the fact that they were an over productive band and writing material too much. With the space and a Tulus album in between I think it gave them the time to refocus Khold and put out the album they really were intending with the way "Krek" sounded.

In the end "Hundre år gammal" is a good album, but it's not a great album and is probably going to be somewhat low on the Khold rotation. I preferred more of a blend between their faster riffing and the slow grooves, but this album is heavily dominated by the slow groove and only a few moments here and there speed up. I'm just rarely in the mood for that type of music, thus I don't even listen to Doom Metal, but if what I've described sounds intriguing to you then this is an album worth checking out because it is well written and very well performed.

Khold - Krek
Tuba Records, 2005
Genre: Black Metal

1. Innestengt i eikekiste
2. Oskorei
3. Byrde
4. Lysets Flukt
5. Grepet om kniven
6. Midvinterblot
7. Varde
8. Silur wie
9. Krek
10. Blod og blek






I remember when "Krek" originally came out and I really felt like the prior album had just come out and I had barely even begun to delve into it. This is how I usually wind up feeling when listening to highly productive bands, it's hard to keep up with them and everything else that gets released. So, that being said, I think "Krek" is the Khold album that I've barely ever listened to, so re-listening to it again is an interesting journey.

If you've been following Khold so far, then "Krek" doesn't really change things up that much. "Krek" is a little different compared to the prior albums in the sense that most of the album is much more focused on groove. The first two songs, for example, have almost none of your standard Black Metal passages, just really intense grooving riffs cast in a Black Metal atmosphere. I'm not sure how "Krek" will measure up in the grand scheme of things, while I do enjoy their groovier ideas, I do also like how they switch into blasting moments to create this really interesting listening experience. In some ways it makes sense that they would want to switch things up a little bit at this point, but they've  dropped a lot of the traditional Black Metal that made their blend a more exciting listen. Instead this feels like a far more mid-paced release and has a sort of droning groove effect. What I mean, is that they sort of set this groove and just stick with it for the majority of the album, so the groove starts to fade into the background more. They do switch things up a little bit with songs like "Lysets Flukt" which features this really awesome opening riff with blasting under it, but the rest of the riffs groove and the middle outright slows down to Doom Metal levels.

"Krek" is also probably the shortest of the Khold albums so far with it only being about a half hour in length. So, even though the album doesn't seem to command as much attention as prior albums, the riffs switch up often enough so things don't drag on for too long. I feel like they were really focused on groove and heavy riffs this time around. Some of the riffs are outright excellent in their catchiness, but sometimes I'm not sure the surrounding riffs pull the song together. Consider "Midvinterblot", which is sort of a Doomy and heavy song, but there's this killer groove section in there that I just wish was in a different song. I don't feel like their groove complements the heavy crushing riffs. However, I will say the title track and "Blod og blek" are awesome songs. They definitely stand out as being excellent songs all the way through.

In the end, even though this album is far shorter, I'm not sure this one held up to the test of time or the rest of their discography so far. I understand doing something a little different from before, but the slow heavy riffing just made the songs feel more boring to me. The attempt to switch the energy around in their writing didn't work for me and I think some of these superb riffs may have been sacrificed when they could have appeared in better songs. Maybe at this point the band had been over-writing and the solid ideas aren't hitting as hard. For a Khold album I would say this is only okay, but I'll probably be choosing other albums over this in the future.

Khold - Mørke Gravers Kammer
Candlelight Records, 2004
Genre: Black Metal

1. Åtselgraver
2. Død
3. Niflheimr
4. Hevenerske
5. Med Nebb og Klør
6. Mørke Gravers Kammer
7. Opera Seria
8. Sjeleskjender
9. Vardøger
10. Kamp





I was surprised to see that Khold was no longer working with Moonfog for their releases and is instead being picked up by Candlelight for their albums. However, it was shortly after this that Moonfog would stop putting out new releases altogether, so maybe the bands on the roster started looking a lot earlier. Well either way, when I saw new Khold released I was looking forward to another heavily groove laden Black Metal album.

If you've been following Khold so far then "Mørke Gravers Kammer" is just another step along that journey. At this point some people may find Khold's approach to repetitive, but to me these people also go listen to bands like Marduk and Dark Funeral who have been releasing the same album style over and over for quite some time. I'll be honest, Khold isn't something I have in constant rotation, but sometimes I really enjoy listening to it for what it is. It's always been a really different take on Black Metal, so even though this new album is similar to the prior albums, I still quite enjoy it. They write new enough riffs to not feel overwhelmingly the same as prior releases. They are stuck in a rut a bit when it comes to some of their open chord riffs where they then single pick the strings, similar to a "Freezing Moon" idea. However, I think all Black Metal bands are basically re-hashing that at this point, so no big deal. Khold excels at putting their listener in a very specific space with their music and it's so well done that other bands who often try to pull this often fail. Khold is one of those bands that are unlikely to ever be reproduced, so I'll revel in the continued style album after album.

In the end Khold continue to put out a high quality product with great atmosphere. The production just gets better each album, which further enhances the experience. Gard's vocals still stand as perfection within the framework of this band. If you've been a fan already, you know what to expect.

Khold - Phantom
Moonfog Productions, 2002
Genre: Black Metal

1. Dødens grøde
2. Skjebnevette
3. Hekseformular i vev
4. Phantom
5. Fra grav til mørke
6. Døde fuglers sang
7. Slaktereika
8. Ord i flammer
9. Vandring







Right on the heels of "Masterpiss of Pain" Khold return with their second album "Phantom". Sometimes when you crank albums out this fast things can begin to stagnate. Is this just a "Masterpiss of Pain" part two? Or something entirely different. Was the band just sitting on a ton of unreleased material? The latter might be the case, but I think there's an argument for that not being true. Either way time to delve into "Phantom."

With the first album Khold set a pretty impressive precedent for their sound and "Phantom" certainly continues that concept and journey. So, for the quick assessment, if you enjoyed "Masterpiss of Pain" there's no reason you wouldn't enjoy "Phantom". Now we just have more music from a great project. However, "Phantom" is a little bit of a different animal. The signature groove laden riffing is certainly the main focus of the project and that's everything in "Phantom", but the overall structure and atmosphere feels a little different. With the release of the self titled Thorns album in 2001, I think it had a lot of bands reminiscing about that project and "Phantom" really borrows a lot of influence from the way Ruch approaches guitar and bass. So, this feels like a much groovier version of Thorns, especially the opener "Dødens grøde". Not every song sounds like this, but you'll hear hints of those Thorns inspired chords or progressions throughout this album. It's interesting that amidst this mid-paced groove laden album we'll come across a song like "Fra grav til mørke", which is a much faster song complete with blasting and having a far more traditional Norwegian Black Metal approach and feel. However, it's not long before we are back to the heavy grooves of before.

It's interesting to note that even though Khold changed studios for this album, they still managed to capture that incredible organic, untouched feel to their music. Amidst all the new digital tricks coming into the norm for extreme metal, Khold manages to record some of the most organic, yet fullest and heaviest sounding material around. Their music feels like it has real weight behind it, not because they are writing crushing riffs, but because the production and the way they layer their songs just sounds huge.

"Phantom" is largely another march down the path of amazing things you can do by keeping things simple. Some people might find this as a rather derivative journey in the face of the first album, but the songs do sound quite different, even though the core sound is here. I can see why some people would say Khold sounds boring, but I find their music exciting and it just pulls me in every time I put this great band on. I'll be pretty surprised if we get another release in 2003, but taking some time to write might be a good thing for the project. Either way, even if their next album is similar to these two, I'll still be happy with them and look forward to whatever is coming next.

Khold - Masterpiss of Pain
Moonfog Productions, 2001
Genre: Black Metal

1. Nattpyre
2. Den store allianse
3. Norne
4. Svart helligdom
5. Rovnatt
6. Kaldbleke Hender
7. Bortvandring
8. Mesterverk av smerte
9. Jol
10. Øyne i arv






By the time 2001 rolled around I was already a pretty loyal follower of Moonfog Productions as Satyr had established himself as having quite a discerning ear for great Black Metal. So, before I even knew who was behind Khold I had run out and got my hands on a copy of this CD, I didn't really have any expectations going in and aside from the album title, "Masterpiss of Pain", being kind of stupid I was immediately taken in by this project.

Now, to really get a good idea of what Khold would sound like, you just need to look up where the members are from. Tulus. Tulus released some of the grooviest and most simplistic Black Metal around and "Pure Black Energy" will forever be a timeless recording in my eyes. However, after "Evil 1999" maybe Tulus was being put to rest and so a new project was formed featuring the Vocalist/Guitarist and Drummer from Tulus working with two other musicians. Eikind on bass, who has been in a number of projects, but guitarist Rinn hasn't been involved in much. Blodstrup, now calling himself Gard, teaming up with Rinn on guitar has created something that truly advances the Tulus sound as far as I'm concerned. It's slowed down quite a bit by comparison and they are now playing on guitars that are tuned far lower, but the focus of this project is generate an extremely catchy groove. The songwriting also stays on the very simple side, but I find that while the songs' challenge level is very low in terms of performance, they do manage to create some really excellent layering between all the instruments. The bass guitar stands out quite a bit compared to, well... just about any other Black Metal release out there and, in fact, the bass ends up being quite the driving instrument in this project. Within this extremely groovy approach they still manage to harness that more atmospheric quality of Black Metal and it's vastly different from anything else out there at the time of the albums release.  In similar Tulus fashion these songs are quite short, varying around three minutes each, so the album is actually fairly short. I don't think I need to mention this, but I love Gard's vocals. I've always loved his vocals and they are a massive asset to this project.

So, if you're looking for something that sort of carries the Tulus torch, but in a slightly different direction then I highly recommend checking out Khold. "Masterpiss of Pain" is an instant success performed by veteran musicians and they've really enhanced their songwriting to a point where this album has always stood out to me and no one has ever really been able to perform something in a similar vein as far as I'm concerned.

Friday, July 6, 2018

Blood Stronghold


Blood Stronghold - Triumph of Wolfish Destiny
Witches Sabbath Records, 2017
Genre: Black Metal

1. Ancient Forest Gates (Wandering I)
2. Born of Steel Obscurity
3. Envenom the Viscera of Revenge
4. Blood Moon Empire
5. Untrodden Fullmoon Paths (Wandering II)
6. The Triumph of Wolfish Destiny
7. The Honoured Liege
8. The Rise of the Wolven Sun
9. Winter Ruins and Memory (Wandering III)





I guess Blood Stronghold isn't signing with Dark Than Black after all? Well, now they're back with Witches Sabbath and their second full-length release. This is simultaneously one of the best and most disappointing releases for me. The whole package and layout are great on this release and Blood Stronghold was certainly taken in a different and forward thinking direction musically.

"Triumph of Wolfish Destiny" has some of the more interesting music I was able to hear this year. It feels very different when compared with a lot of other material that is typically produced. The major difference here is the incredibly different lead guitar work thrown into the mix. They maintain that sort of Graveland inspired rhythm section, but Nightwolf throws in these really interesting lead guitar lines over the sections to really expand the overall impact and sound of the songs. It gives them this really amazing quality that goes beyond just the "epic" feeling qualities in prior albums. Just listen to the way the lead work plays out with "Envenom the Viscera of Revenge", which really brings the music to a whole other level, but my absolute favorite track on here is "Blood Moon Empire"

Now, usually Blood Stronghold doesn't bother with printing lyrics, but this time they decided to print lyrics for one of their songs, "The Honoured Liege". Now, given this is out in 2017, I can't help but think the political climate of the world helped motivate this and it appears they're going to double down, which I'm not surprised by. I was always somewhat suspicious of the more NS leanings of this band given the labels they work with. Witches Sabbath has pressed L.S.S.A.H. material, for example and anyone into Black Metal knows Darker Than Black. Now, I don't care if you sing about heritage or your peoples or whatever, hell bands like Rudra do that. But with lines like:

"14 stars illuminate the true heritage
Sons of Arya, we must secure our existence"

I'm sorry, the 14, I'm sure, probably alludes to the well known 14 words and please, Sons of Arya... I get it. First off, you're existence isn't threatened. I know people that believe this garbage like to carry around this narrative that our "racial" existence is in danger... it's not. I'm just going to think your ideas on this topic are stupid. The fact that this is the only song with lyrics printed makes me think they really felt the need to make this statement to show their "allegiance". A lot of bands seem to be doubling down in this regard with Famine from Peste Noire going, basically, full NS despite in the past trying to explain how he he's not a Nazi...

It's a real shame, great music, great album, terrible ideology. Grimspirit of Evilfeast returns to do their intro on this album, but since he put out tapes by Revenge, I'm not entirely surprised to see him running on this side of things. Ah well, readers can do what they want with this info.

Blood Stronghold - Vengeance in Sacrificial Blood
Darker Than Black, 2016
Genre: Black Metal

1. Intro
2 Frozen Memory of the Dark Sky
3. In the Mists of the Immortal Past
4. Legacy (Of Wolves, War and Thunder)
5. Blood Split in the Earth's Viscera
6. Dying Flame of a Pale Sun
7. Transgressing the Forest Depths






If you've missed out on the early stages of Blood Stronghold you now have a chance to hear this material. This compilation features the demo, their first 7" EP and the recently released demo song now on CD. On top of that the material has been re-mastered, probably to create a level of cohesiveness on the tracks. However, we all benefit from that with having better quality mastering on the older material.

The major feature of this compilation is being able to get the more rare material on CD for the first time ever. While the track from the split tape sounds a little better, it still feels quite raw compared to the other material on this, but at least people that missed out on the split can finally hear it. The only major complaint I have about this compilation is that the artwork concept did not translate to the high gloss digi-pak format very well. It's extremely hard to read anything on this. It was pretty difficult before, but now it's nearly impossible.

Blood Stronghold & Duch Czerni - The Fragments of Wandering Souls
Darker Than Black, 2015
Genre: Black Metal

Blood Stronghold:
1. Transgressing the Forest Depths
Duch Czerni:
2. Opętujące szepty zagłady











Side Duch Czerni: ...probably never...not into DSBM
Side Blood Stronghold:

I was kind of surprised to see a split tape come out from this project in the same year that the EP was released, but this is more of a demo quality tape. Perhaps it's to signify the switch to working with a new label. This tape is limited to 111 copies and there doesn't appear to be any individual numbering. The cassette and booklet are pro-printed.

When I say the tape is more of a demo quality I'm referring to the production. The Blood Stronghold song feels very under-produced compared to their prior efforts. However, the song itself feels like it's pushing in a bit of a different direction from their previous material. It feels heavier and more epic to a certain degree, so I wonder if this is also signalling a new direction for Blood Stronghold. They are still trying to maintain that general atmosphere of before, but this song sort of ups the intensity levels a little bit more. I'm definitely interested in seeing where the project is going to go after this.

Blood Stronghold - The March of Apparitions
Witches Sabbath Productions, 2015
Genre: Black Metal

1. In the Arms of a Fullmoon Night
2. The March of Apparitions
3. Beneath Twilight Wings
4. The Abyssal Call...











For Blood Stronghold 2015 starts off with a new EP from the project. It spans four songs and only twenty-five minutes. Which is certainly almost a full-length Death Metal album... but this is Black Metal so for us it's an EP. Only two of the songs are truly lengthy and the other two are a more normal song length. The booklet for this EP actually features the lyrics for the songs on the album, so that's a bit of a change from the debut.

Musically, given how soon after it's coming after the debut, feels like a continuation of the "From Sepulchral Remains" album. The artwork and general layout are nearly exactly the same. Since this material is all self recorded the production value certainly hasn't changed much in such a short amount of time. So, if you really like that blend described in the debut then you'll certainly enjoy this EP as well. It's so similar that it makes me wonder if these were just songs that didn't make it to the debut. The title track feels even more Graveland inspired than anything else Blood Stronghold has ever done, it almost feels like a "Creed of Iron" track at some points. Meanwhile the closing track feels very similar to an Evilfeast song!

All in all, it's certainly a good EP. It's really not much different than the debut, so if you wanted more of that sound they've certainly delivered. Personally, I'm not a big fan of EP's I tend to listen to them a lot less frequently than full-lengths, so I can't say I'll pull this out more often than the debut.

Blood Stronghold - From Sepulchral Remains...
Witches Sabbath Productions, 2014
Genre: Black Metal

1. Eternal Wrath of Dark Gods
2. Ancient Mystery of the Moon
3. Stronghold of Forgotten Blood
4. From Sepulchral Remains...
5. Lost Upon the Nameless Wind (Sign of the Forgotten Dawn)
6. To Distant Shores Aflame
7. Fortress of Nightly Desolation
8. The Spirit, Devoured by the Cold Soil of the Earth





This is the third release from Blood Stronghold in 2014 and we finally get a glimpse into a full-length production from the project. It's shocking to see an EP hit so fast after a demo, but to have the full-length in our hands by the end of that same year is even more ridiculous. Personally, I would have waited and sat on the material instead of cranking out the releases. I remember when these all came out and it seemed like the project was hard to keep up with and I was worried we had another Hellveto on our hands. Luckily that ended up not being the case and this project was easier to keep up with release wise.

"From Sepulchral Remains" immerses us into the world of Blood Stronghold for a solid forty-five minutes. In this regard I find it to be a much better experience than the overall briefness of the prior two releases, since Blood Stronghold sit in that realm of Atmospheric Black Metal that has a more expansive and epic quality to it. With that being the case I prefer a much longer experience to enjoy the songs. The album has an ambient intro created by Grim Spirit of Evilfeast and it's got that Evilfeast feel to it to a certain degree with the way he plays around with ambiance. Another break from Black Metal on this release is with the song "To Distant Shores Aflame" and this heavily reminded me of some old Arcana material.

As the full-length unfolds I feel like Blood Stronghold is musically a blend of middle-era Graveland with Nightwolf's other project Eternum. It has that slow plodding feel albums like "Creed of Iron" have, but it's cast in a far more atmospheric light. I will say Krew is certainly a far more solid drummer than Rob. The overall production of the album feels really dense with fairly quiet mastering, so be prepared to turn that volume up! The dense production adds to the cavern like feel of the atmosphere, so it really works for the overall Blood Stronghold experience.

I really quite enjoy Atmospheric Black Metal and I really enjoyed the debut full-length from this project, but as the years have gone on I'm not sure how much it holds up in the test of time. It's a good CD, but it's not something I've been returning to over and over again because I simply must sit in this musical space one more time. As this project grows that might change, but I haven't listened to this album in quite a while since I first got it a few years ago.

Blood Stronghold - Blood Spilt in the Earth's Viscera
Witches Sabbath Productions, 2014
Genre: Black Metal

1. Blood Spilt in the Earth's Viscera
2. Dying Flame of a Pale Sun












A few months after their first demo tape Blood Stronghold returned with two more songs on this 7" vinyl. This EP is limited to 300 hand-numbered copies and I own #292.

Cranking out an EP this soon after your demo is kind of strange and made me wonder why they just didn't wait and include this material, but when you listen to this material you realize it wouldn't really fit. It's strange to say, but the music on here sounds thematically quite different, so I can understand why a separate release was warranted. If you enjoyed "The Immortal Past" this EP advances that style quite a bit. The first song is very beautiful and has more of a melancholic atmosphere compared to the demo. The second song is really different. "Dying Flame of a Pale Sun" starts off with what we'd expect from this project, but then they really up the tempo at some point. This is by far the fastest from this project so far. The vocals also trend more to the usual screaming kind that is normal in Black Metal and I enjoyed this shift quite a bit. The song still maintains a heavy and dense atmosphere like all the others. The only major issue is that with the production this raw with so much reverb, the fast sections feel more chaotic than anything else. There's almost too much going on too fast to really make out all the elements. However, the entire song isn't fast, so for most of the song we have that majestic atmosphere we're looking for.

In the end we have two new excellent tracks and I just hope this projects productivity doesn't run away with them. Naturally, I want more songs and I would love to see a full-length from the project at this point soon, so hopefully they can keep up the quality this high.

Blood Stronghold - The Immortal Past
Hammerbolt Productions, 2014
Genre: Black Metal

1. Frozen Memory of the Dark Past
2. In the Mists of the Immortal Past
3. Legacy (Of Wolves, War & Thunder)










Blood Stronghold is a bit of a super group considering it's two members have played in quite a lot of projects. The main composer behind the material is from Australia and has done great projects like Eternum and the drummer Krew, has been in so many bands I can't keep track. One of the more well known is Gontyna Kry. In any event when Blood Stronghold released a debut album later in 2014 it went around the web really fast and I wound up back tracking and getting everything else they had put out and I've been a loyal fan ever since. This release was original put out on cassette by Witches Sabbath Records a few months before the CD edition. Since I usually prefer CD's I picked up this version and it comes in a beautiful digipak. The only complaint I have about the design is the font color is so dark you can't really read any of it.

"The Immortal Past" reminds me a lot of Graveland for some reason. It has a very similar feel and pacing to the music, even the vocals are reminiscent of the Rob Darken style. I've heard some great bands inspired by Gravelend, but a lot of times they mostly clone what Rob does and they don't advance it as much. Blood Stronghold is an entirely different approach to the Graveland foundation, in my opinion. Instead of driving down the path of Paganism and keyboard driven atmosphere, Blood Stronghold just sounds so much darker. They draw more on the creations of Atmospheric Black Metal to build their particular musical space. The result is something that just feels entirely different and really advances that core foundation. Quite a few of the old Black Metal bands had this sort of core approach with their mid-paced compositions, and Blood Stronghold bring back a lot of those ideas, but they also push them forward for the modern era. Which might not be their intention... but that's ultimately what they did. One of the things you'll find most interesting is how this project handles the lead guitars, because the lead material feels really different from what we're used to with these rhythm backdrops. It creates a really dense and beautiful atmosphere. The production is extremely raw, so the production snobs of the modern era need not apply. For example, the lead guitars are blended into the rhythms so seamlessly it's hard to tell they're there, but when a rhythm sections stops you can hear it. They don't cut through, they're more subtle in the mix and creating this really interesting texture.

As far as debuts go, this is an excellent first effort, but I would expect that from such experienced musicians that have already been well established. The one and only complaint I can level at this is I'm not big on this vocal approach. The low raspy, mostly talked, Black Metal vocal is fairly uninteresting to me. Whenever someone takes this approach I always wonder what it would be like with a better vocalist. These types of vocals are good for certain parts, but a whole release of them can get boring for me vocally. Luckily the music is so strong the vocals just kind of fade to the background for me. So, if you're a fan of mid-paced atmospheric Black Metal or interested in seeing a new take on that old Polish Pagan style of Black Metal, this is a must hear.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Obscurité


Obscurité - Contemplation II
Ossuaire Records, 2015
Genre: Black Metal

1. Intro
2. Invocation
3. Lointains chants dans l'horizon
4. Le Cosmos: Dans la fuite des saisons
5. Dans l'astrailité de l'esprit
6. Le Sanctuaire
7. L'impasse lunaire
8. In Regeneratione Solis
9. Erêbe
10. Outro





Obscurité wasted no time in getting back into the studio to release their second full-length and what a massive improvement in just a years time. Obscurité still manage to keep their core epic atmosphere as the main focus in the arrangements, but this time things have been pushed a little more. This CD comes with a full multi-page booklet this time and the lyrics aren't all crammed onto two pages. The cover and back of the jewel case are a little too dark though, it's one of those things where maybe what was on the computer screen didn't translate as well into a printed product. In this case things are a bit too dark. The booklet is beautiful too look at with its images of landscapes and has lyrics for one song per page this time, which works out much better.

After we get beyond the intro the first thing you'll notice is how much faster the opening song is. This came as quite the shock because we had just gone through quite a lengthy album of slow and quite lengthy material. For "Contemplation II" everything is pushed to the more extreme ends of things and now the album is conjuring up images of early Darkenhöld, which is a truly wonderful image to have. "Contemplation II" feels ancient and medieval and it's only enhanced all the more by the rare keyboard and choir work. Even the guitar tone is much improved on this album and I think a higher gain setting was chosen for this. I think the tempo increase gave Fog a bit more room to be creative since metal drumming is clearly his forté. Don't worry if you're afraid everything is all fast, songs like "Dans l'astrailité de l'esprit" hearken back to the first albums tempo. However, this time they serve to switch up the tempo of the songs and I find this a much more enjoyable experience than before.

If you enjoyed the first album, I can't imagine why this one would disappoint you, since this really just further advances on the first release. The material feels much better written this time around too and the guitar riffs are truly melodic and epic in nature, much more so than before. This project has turned into something really wonderful and I look forward to what's in store for us next, especially with this much improvement between releases already.

Obscurité - Contemplation
Ossuaire Records, 2014
Genre: Black Metal

1. Absolu
2. Païen
3. Contemplatio
4. Résistance éternelle
5. Réminiscence
6. Des ailes
7. Elégie
8. L'ivresse nocturne du ciel etoilé (Cycles)
9. L'aurore et la solarité






Obscurité is a fairly new project out of France and since I've always followed Ossuaire Records, naturally I would wind up with this on my desk. I was also pleased to see that Fog offered drum effort, so I knew the drumming would be quite good. He also offered layout and design treatment and the cover is quite arresting. The booklet which is only two  pages has all the lyrics for the entire album, but because it's on two pages it really does feel a bit crammed onto the pages. On Metal-Archives this is listed as Epic Black Metal for the genre, and so I wasn't expecting the usual fast paced barrage of our usual wall of sound.

Obscurité do have quite an "epic" feel to their take on Black Metal. It just feels ancient and slow moving with the way the material is presented. Blast beats are few and far between and instead the tempo is quite slow. It's, basically, down-tempo Black Metal, if you will. Blast beats are few and far between, but Fog does sneak them in there once in a while. Ash's guitar work is quite good and there are some really exceptional riffs on this release. It sort of reminds me of an album built around the more epic styled Bathory songs or a band like Macabre Omen.  I think the one complaint I would level at the guitars is I wish there was more gain on the guitars or something. When they perform the palm muting riffs it feels a little fuzzy kind of like the distortion settings Mütiilation would use, but that's my most major complaint. Vocally Ash is just okay, nothing exceptional in my book. It's sort of like when Demonaz put out his own album and it reminds me of that. They're not bad vocals, but they don't really stand out either.

In the end this is a pretty good first effort. For me, I'm not sure how much it will wind up in my future listening, because I tend to prefer the faster variant of Black Metal. This being the case "Elégie" is probably my favorite song on this album. I usually like the slower tempo Black Metal as a song or two on an album to break up the monotony of blasting/speed which a lot of Black Metal ends up sounding like. However, if you've ever listened to those songs and said "wow, I wish I had a whole album of this" then look no further, Obscurité is an absolutely fine choice. Ash does a great job of executing that style and making the riffs interesting and, as you can guess, quite epic.

Monday, June 18, 2018

Hysteria


Hysteria - Flesh, Humiliation and Irreligious Deviance
Great Dane Records, 2016
Genre: Death Metal

1. In Belief, Into Nothingness...
2. Sadistic Deviance
3. Visceral Torments
4. Heiress of Disease
5. Ô Father...
6. Succubus Offering
7. The Unhealthy Signature: Haunted by Words of Gods Part II
8. Hérésie
9. Demons from the Past
10. Flesh Messiah
11. Blasphemous Writings (Final Part)


I sort of lost track of Hysteria over the years and I had no idea the project was still active, sadly I was a couple years late picking up this album. I don't know what made me check up on them, but I was pleasantly surprised a new album was out. I think they got lost in the shuffle over the years, because the last album did come out quite a long time ago. Sadly this album has probably been overlooked by the scene as well.

"Flesh, Humilation and Irreligious Deviance" really picks up right where "When Believers Preach their Hangamn's Dogma" leaves off. It's almost hard to believe such a large spans of time has gone by between these two albums. Naturally, "Flesh, Humilation and Irreligious Deviance" does advance their sound quite a lot. It's just interesting to think about what catches the public eye, for example Hate has gotten quite popular, but Hysteria is every bit as good as that band. This is really the difference between a large scale touring act, but I still wish it was easier for bands like Hysteria to get their name out there because their music is truly awesome. I can tell already from the first listen that this album will be added to my "go to" list of Death Metal albums to listen to. It's interesting to see how much Hysteria has changed over the years and I feel like they've become even more influenced by the sounds of Polish Death Metal, but their addition of more Swedish styled melodies into the mix really can make their sound feel quite different from the usual Polish masters. One interesting thing I've noticed this time around is their inclusion of varying up the vocals a lot more. Prior to this they stayed mostly in the low guttural style with the occasional higher range scream. But this time they are starting to include some more flat out yelling styles that are really making for a great effect in the atmosphere of the songs. They really stand out quite a bit, because they are markedly different from the way a vocalist like Nergal approaches them.

In the end the new Hysteria is simply an awesome album. If you liked the last album, I can't imagine you would be disappointed with this release. I feel like Hysteria are finally settling down into their own sound and have found their own unique take on the genre after spending a couple albums trying to find their sound. Since this album and the last are a result of that exploration, I would say two mediocre releases were well worth the wait for something this exquisite. They've really managed to give a truly refined feel to their music that exemplifies their rather diverse approach to the writing of this music. An absolutely must listen as far as I'm concerned.

Hysteria - When Believers Preach their Hangman's Dogma
Trendkill Recordings, 2009
Genre: Death Metal

1. Sufferings Make Me Almighty
2. Your Kingdom Will Be Mine
3. Still Haunted by Flesh (Work or Torments Part II)
4. Art of Evil
5. The Unholy Creation
6. Lies for Religion Supremacy
7. Stroke Down by Disease
8. Blinded by Religious Doctrines
9. Les écrites blasphématoires





Hysteria isn't the type of band to crank out albums, but it seems they're content to wait until the time is right and they have material worth showing off, which is something I can totally respect. Once again I picked this album up when it was originally released. We finally have some fairly unique cover art and a really awesome booklet layout to match making this album totally worth buying. The biggest reason this is worth getting is the sheer and immense improvement over the past two efforts.

It's hard to believe this band ever sounded like "Abyssal Plains of Chaos", because "When Believers Preach their Hangman's Dogma" is such a stellar presentation of refined and well thought out modern Death Metal. It's almost a shame how overlooked this band is given how exceptional good the riffing is on this album. Not one bad song, mind you. I'm doing this review in 2018 and I've had this album in a fair amount of rotation when I'm in the mood for some excellently well written Death Metal. The truly best part of this release is that it's more than just a mere exercise in Death Metal performance, the riffs have some wonderful atmosphere behind them, while maintaining that crushing Brutal Death Metal vibe. Look at how "Stroke Down by Disease" starts? Awesome atmosphere right there before it takes off into really intense Death Metal. Hysteria haven't lost their melodic touch either because the main riff on "Still Haunted by Flesh" feels extremely influenced by the Black Metal band Dawn. However, melody has taken a back seat in favor of more brutal riffing for the majority of the album. It sounds like they are becoming more influenced by the heavy hitters out in Poland like Trauma, but they still blend in this interesting mix of Hypocrisy and Morbid Angel for good measure.

"When Believers Preach their Hangman's Dogma" is an absolutely superb album and sadly overlooked by the metal community. I think this is a rare gem in a world of mundane efforts. Maybe I'm getting more out of this material than others? But I really enjoyed everything they put together on here a lot. If you enjoy exceptional riffing that is more than just chugging and crushing tone, but a really excellent blend then this is a must listen. They may not be doing anything drastically new, but their particular blend of influences is unique enough to keep me coming back to this album.

Hysteria - Haunted by the Words of Gods
Adipocere Records, 2006
Genre: Death Metal

1. Haunted by Words of Gods
2. Controlled Existence
3. Martyrs of God
4. My Last Thoughts
5. The Valley of Hinnom
6. From Beyond Reality
7. Unfathomable Mystery
8. Work of Torments







I remember being surprised when this album hit, because I thought this project was done with just the one EP. I remember liking the EP back then enough to see what the new album would sound like. It was hard to sample music back in 2006 as if it wasn't really on myspace there weren't really many options, but I really liked the album title a lot. The cover was kind of weird though and a lot of other bands were doing very similar graphic design like Sinister, Hate, and Behemoth even. The layout and design of the booklet is pretty cool, but I just remember thinking it was already overdone by the time I got my hands on this release. It's like the genre of Death Metal suddenly hired the same graphic designer.

Musically "Haunted by Words of Gods" is way better than their EP. It feels like the band has managed to find more of a direction and got much better at blending together their brutal riffing with the more melodic passages. They do a very good job of hitting that brutal Death Metal sequence and the album pretty much hits you with this after the Exorcist sample laden intro. So, right from the start this album hits you pretty hard. The riffing is solid and reminiscent of a Suffocation meets Morbid Angel sort of blend. There's probably a decent amount of Deicide in here too, but not total worship like we hear with a band like Hate. Hysteria switches between the Brutal Death Metal style and a Melodic Death Metal style. Sure there are moments that are melodic and reminiscent of works like At the Gates, but a lot of the parts have more of Hypocrisy atmosphere to them, which is really wonderful as a lot of bands don't do the newer Hyprocrisy style well.

Production wise this blows the prior album out of the water. Everything is so much more powerful and I feel like I'm listening to real drum set! Albeit it's triggered, but better than a terrible e-kit snare sound. It seems like they put a lot more care into this album and the skill behind the riff writing is far more apparent.

In the end this is an enjoyable album. I liked it quite a bit when I first got it in 2006, but it has fallen out of rotation. Listening again after all these years, I'm not sure it holds up to the test of time for me. It's not a bad album to have on and some of the riffs are really killer riffs, but as a whole I have other releases that I find to be a lot better. Hysteria is taken steps in the right direction though, so with this release I looked forward to their next album a lot more.

Hysteria - Abyssal Plains of Chaos
Infernal Waves Productions, 2002
Genre: Death Metal

1. Taking Sides with the Devil... the Ritual
2. Endless Suffering
3. Spiritual Weakness
4. Vision of Chaos - Disruption of the Elements











I picked up Hysteria's debut release when it first came out and I've been following the project ever since. It's been easily a decade since I've listened to this EP and let's see if this holds up in 2018. Hysteria is a project that no one really talked about and I think I remember buying this as a random purchase on a label because I thought the cover looked cool. Even though this is likely long out of print, it's still pretty readily available on the internet at various locations.

The early 2000's were a weird production time for extreme metal, suddenly we had access to more affordable digital gear. We no longer had to rely on tape in the home studio and we didn't have to pay for fancy more analog driven studios. You could put an album together and it wouldn't sound like the early 90's harsh demos of the days of yore. However, there were some growing pains with the new technology... especially in the drum trigger market. Triggers sounded atrocious around this time, they've definitely gotten better over the years (nothing beats a real drumset in my opinion though). This Hysteria album sounds like it was recorded with an electronic kit on the drums and as a result it has some of the worst snare tone out there. The performance is great and a lot of early band recordings wound up on the cheap this way. Saves mixing time too, ah well... the guitars sound pretty good... the production was just something that stood out as I turned this one.

Anyway, musically this album is kind of all over the place. Maybe that's the real source of the band name in some respects. This four song EP ranges from the realms of more Brutal Death Metal to really nice Melodic Death Metal. It kind of circles around these ideas with split second switches at times, but other times the riffing will transform itself more seamlessly. Perhaps they're drawing some influence from the likes of Akercocke and blending it in with the Melodic Death Metal style we hear out of Sweden. There are even moments when they play Thrashier riffs that wind up having a bit more a Black Metal vibe, but this isn't very often.

In the end this is an okay start for a band. I would like to see them organize their musical ideas better on future releases. I can see why this release has wound up as dead stock in some distros, it's not terrible, but it's only okay. It will clearly get buried by the deluge of more solidified projects releasing higher quality material. Unless you're a really big Hysteria fan this is probably worth skipping.

Skinweaver


Skinweaver - Gratification Eternal
Great Dane Records, 2017
Genre: Death Metal

1. Apotemnophilia
2. Skinweaver
3. Malus Triumfat
4. Salvation
5. Kneedeep in the Flesh
6. Bastion of Butchers
7. Suffer Endless
8. Zombie Holocaust
9. Plague Bearer






Skinweaver was a bit of a random purchase on my behalf. I was picking up the new Hysteria album and while looking through the record labels releases I came across this release. The name and album cover screamed of "old school Death Metal", which I happen to love. Skinweaver reminds me of the Dismember song "Skinfather", so I was hoping the album was somewhere in that wheelhouse. "Gratification Eternal" is their debut album, with no demos prior and it's rare to find this quality out of the gate.

I feel like I'm seeing a bit of a resurgence of the old Death Metal style thanks to labels like Iron Bonehead, who seems to do everything the old way and maybe now Great Dane with more of a focus on Death Metal? After hearing this I'm going to start exploring their catalog more, because this debut from Skinweaver is absolutely incredible. It's everything I want from Death Metal, and this is coming from a person who primarily listens to Black Metal. I grew up with a lot of the old greats like Entombed, Dismember, Suffocation, Unleashed, etc. and Skinweaver definitely delivers on that idea. The really excellent aspect of this release is that it doesn't feel like a clone at all. You hear a myriad of influences in this album. You've got Dismember, Carcass, Sinister and old Hypocrisy all rolled together here and I feel like that's the core blend of their main approach. They stay heavily focused on creating catchy grooves and casting them amidst some crushing Death Metal. The production value of the album is excellent as well, everything feels very organic as opposed to the more modern sound where we don't really listen to real drums anymore. Some bands do okay with hyper production like Lost Soul, but most of the time it just sounds bad to me. Skinweaver has a really excellent compromise because it's certainly better production quality than early 90's Death Metal, but it sounds like we have real instruments being played. Based on their pictures of recording we're listening to the guitars driven by Diezel tube amplifiers, which gives a really nice crunchy tone to the guitars. The vocals sit nicely in the mix and have a ton of reverb on them which really works for this release, in my opinion. They never take over the mix either, which is great, because I hear that happen a lot, this way we can enjoy the riffs and this awesome powerful guttural shout their vocalist does.

In the end I was very happy with my random purchase and I'm going to have to look through and check out other bands on this record label. The booklet is a bit over simplified, but that kind of makes sense for a debut of a fairly unknown project. I'm just happy they went with pressing a CD instead of digital release only. If you miss the old days of Death Metal, well they are alive and well on this album. They pull it off without sounding like a clone and that is, by far, one of the most endearing parts of this album. A really killer debut and I look forward to whatever else they put out in the future now that this project is on my radar.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Apolokia


Apolokia & Inferno Split
Sombre Records, 2003
Genre: Black Metal

Apolokia:
1. Acherontis Avari
Inferno:
2. Hrdi a silni
3. Sjednoceni viron











Side Inferno: here
Side Apolokia:

It's been a couple years since we've heard from Apolokia and their latest movement comes two years after their last split with Dark Storm. As before this is a Sombre Records release, this time on 7" and limited to 500 copies. I don't see any hand-numbering on my copy, so I guess they didn't hand number all their releases.

This material came out about the same time as Katharsis' "Kruzifixxion" album, so the material isn't too far off from there. As I mentioned in the last review this project is closely related, however it isn't nearly as chaotic. "Kruzifixxion" is one of Katharsis' most chaotic efforts, so this Apolokia song stands pretty far removed from that. Which works out well because even though it has that Katharsis tone, it doesn't have that Katharsis atmosphere, so it's nice to hear a whole new spin on this.

Unfortunately, this is the last we heard from the project. Perhaps the two members couldn't find the time to work together, or M.K. just decided to focus more on Katharsis. Either way, this project has been put to rest and it's kind of a shame we never got a proper full-length out of it, because the music was pretty good.

Apolokia & Dark Storm Split
Sombre Records, 2001
Genre: Black Metal

Apolokia: In Ceremonial Circles
1. Infinite Warscream
2. Cemetary Shrines
3. Thy Eye and Claw of Evil
4. In Ceremonial Circles
Dark Storm: Kult Satan
5. Kult Satan
6. Infernal Desecration
7. Eternal Flame of Hell
8. Thy Unholy Light
9. In the Sign of Blasphemy




Side Dark Storm: here
Side Apolokia:

Being a fairly big Katharsis fan I somehow missed out on Apolokia and instead I got into them through the bands they did splits with. Their first 4-way split that came out before this one is something I'm missing, but someday I might track it down. Their original demo tape, I'm not so optimistic about, so my reviews really begin here. While I was reviewing Dark Storm these tracks happened to come on and I was really into them, so here we are. This is a 12" LP and is limited to 350 copies.

Basically, if you like Katharsis you will certainly enjoy Apolokia as the projects are quite similar. Apolokia is M.K. on guitar and drums with vocalist/bassist Azazel. I didn't realize M.K. also played guitar, but in Katharsis I think all he plays is drums. Either way, the Katharsis style is certainly strong in his writing style and you can hear that from the very start of "Infinite Warscream". The major difference is that his music doesn't seem as intensely chaotic as Katharsis usually is. So, it's not exactly a Katharsis clone, it just sounds quite similar. I'm sure they're recorded in the same Katharsis studio, which gives the production quality the exact same treatment, which works very well for this material. The only major off-putting aspect is that sometimes the material feels pretty messy in it's writing and performance. As if the songs weren't practiced very often, but just enough to do a recording. Despite that the material is still good with slightly less chaotic styled Katharsis riffing and generates that awesomely hateful atmosphere the project is known for. So, if you're a Katharsis fan you should also become a fan of Apolokia!

Friday, June 1, 2018

Gottlos


Gottlos - Infernal Pandemonia
Eclipse Productions, 2004
Genre: Black Metal

1. Glorious Conquest
2. Mystis
3. A Nocturnal Monologue
4. Kytheria (Astral in the Midnight)
5. The Witches of Symposium
6. Wrath of Katachthonium
7. Mesíášův Konec (Maniac Butcher cover)








Gottlos is another project somewhat related to Maniac Butcher that has probably been rather lost to the ages of time. I bought this CD around when it was first released and I think I listened to it once or twice back then and now we're in 2018 seeing if this holds up to the test of time. The music is composed by Greek musician Skylepthis and Barbarud Hrom from Maniac Butcher provided the vocal accompaniment.

Being related to Maniac Butcher I expect some degree of rawness and that's pretty much what we get with the first Gottlos release. The music isn't too bad, however, it is quite monotonous, which is probably the intention. Each songs has, perhaps, two to three riffs, if that. "Mystis" feels like it is only a single riff played for a few minutes. The major problem here is that while other bands like Gorgoroth and Horna have done a decent job with this approach Gottlos doesn't succeed in the same fashion. The riffing mostly feels okay with a few gems shining through here and there, such as the opening to "A Nocturnal Monologue" and there's even another riff in there that sounds quite good. The major problem and reason this winds up sounding so mind-numbing compared to other bands is there are no drum fills, except for one during the middle of "A Nocturnal Monologue". Skyleptis barely gives treatment to the rest of the drum set beyond snare, kick, and hi-hat. The beats rarely vary beyond a blast beat. The moments that do vary really stand out in a big way, because it's so weird amidst such over simplicity. The album closes with a Maniac Butcher cover and its a stark contrast because there are drum fills... so it's not that Skylepthis can't do them, he's choosing not to, which just make the overall release a bit more questionable in its drum arrangements. In fact, it almost seems like Skylepthis is learning drums as he is making this album, because the variation and complexity of the drum beats increases as the album progresses.

In the end, I'm not sure this was supposed to have more releases, but this wound up being a Black Metal one-off. While some of the riffing was enjoyable, the mind-numbing drum performance kind of killed the release for me. It really doesn't hold up well over time and I can't remember if I liked it a lot when it was first released. I can see why I forgot about the album over the years, because it didn't over enough memorable music for me to return to over and over. If you like incredibly simplistic Black Metal then you might find the lack of arrangements to be a feature.


Nhaavah


Nhaavah - Nhaavah
Unisound Records, 2002
Genre: Black Metal

Kings of Czech Black Metal
1. Death
2. I am Satan, I am God
3. Hate
4. Xenophobia
5. The Law
6. War
7. Nhaavah
Determination, Detestation, Devastation:
8. Determination of Life
9. Detestation of Humanity
10. Devastation of Church



Nhaavah is yet another side project of Vlad Blasphemer, this time only with Maniac Butcher's vocalist Barbarud Hrom. If you missed out on their only two releases, this self titled release compiles everything Nhaavah have ever done for the first time on CD. It was a fairly short lived project and seems more focused on playing fast than playing for anything else. This has one of the most ridiculous booklets I've ever seen, all the information and lyrics are crammed onto the very last panel and when you open the booklet it's just black inside. Probably one of the worst layout designs around.

If you're unfamiliar with Nhaavah you'll be surprised to see how short the songs are and how fast this album cranks through everything. This is almost akin to Black Grind, given the ridiculous speed with which the drums are programmed. Even though there are bands out there that can play this fast, it sounds ridiculous with the programmed drums, because the ride cymbal doesn't sound real so it's just some strange clicking noise. It's not constant speed, songs like "Hate" have lengthy sections that slow down, but most of it is pretty fast and a lot of the songs are around two minutes in length.

Maybe Nhaavah has more substance if your into more of the Grind style than I am, but Nhaavah is one of their projects that doesn't really have much for me. It might have a few moments where the riffs are pretty good, but it's very short lived. Nhaavah isn't trying to construct a Black Metal atmosphere, I think they're just trying to assault our senses with blisteringly fast music, it doesn't really matter if the riff is good or makes sense.

Nhaavah & Katharsis Split
Sombre Records, 1999
Genre: Black Metal

Nhaavah:
1. Detremination of Life
2. Detestation of Humanity
3. Devastation of Church
Katharsis:
4. Raid of Destruction (The Ninth Age)
5. I... Am... Redeemer








Side Katharsis: here
Side Nhaavah:

While I had heard both Nhaavah and Katharsis, I'll be honest, the reason I bought this was for Katharsis. This is Nhaavah's second release, the first being their only demo tape. Here they have a split 7" with one of Germany's finest. This is on the legendary Sombre Records and limited to 500 hand-numbered copies, of which I own #480.

The material on this split basically picks up where "Kings of Czech Black Metal" left off. The production is a little more clear, but that's about it. We still have the same blisteringly fast Black Metal played in under two minutes. The only reason the first song breaks the two minute mark is because there is an ambient styled intro. The insert of the 7" describes the music as "Raw War Black Metal" and I'd have to say that fits. It's almost as if this is what Marduk is trying to achieve sometimes, but they can only play so fast and they're a little more reasonable with adding memorable riffs into the mix.

Either way, Nhaavah certainly isn't for everyone and this project was fairly short lived. Focus on Maniac Butcher makes way more sense for these two musicians, in my opinion.  I sort of imagine Vlad mainly fooling around with this saying "see, we can play ultra fast too!" as a response for all the speed based projects that were coming out in the late 90's.

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Panphage


Panphage - Jord
Nordvis Produktion, 2018
Genre: Black Metal

1. Odalmarkerna
2. Måtte dessa bygder brinna
3. Ygg (En visa om julen)
4. Skadinawjo
5. Den tyste åsen
6. Som man sår får man skörda
7. Osådda skal åkrarna växa (Outro)








2018 started of with a band with the announcement that Panphage was unleashing a new album. After how incredible "Drengskapr" was, I assumed "Jord" would be, yet another, spectacular addition to their discography. However, the excitement didn't last as long as I would have liked, because this announcement also heralded the end of the project. "Jord" is to be the last chapter in the Panphage journey. Part of me feels like Panphage hasn't been around long enough, but this project has been active for over a decade now, so perhaps Fjällbrandt wants to challenge himself with a different project. Or this album is just the pinnacle of the Panphage sound and he wouldn't want to try to exceed it.

Either way "Jord" is quite the force to be reckoned with. This is certainly wind up in the top ten this year, it would really take an awful lot to push this record aside. "Jord" takes all the wonderful writing we found on "Drengskapr" and somehow just enhances that experience. It's dark, it's folky, it's somber, it's atmospheric all at once. It's a veritable assault on the senses and encompasses a lot of areas I love about Black Metal in a single project. The impressive thing about Panphage is that none of this work feels disjointed and instead is just seamlessly executed on "Jord". The project has come quite far from the first demo tape, which is hardly worth the experience... and ends on such a well composed high note that it still leaves us craving for more.

"Jord" is an immense swan song of an album and it's basically everything we've ever wanted out of a Panphage album. I sort of hold out hope that in a few years the project will get resurrected if more inspiration comes along. However, at the same time, it's also a very good idea to leave a project ending on a high note. "Jord" is a killer close to an era and an absolute must hear as far as I'm concerned.

Panphage - Drengskapr
Nordvis Produktion, 2016
Genre: Black Metal

1. Gettir Àsmundarson
2. Landrensningen
3. Glam rider husen
4. Glamsyn
5. Utlagr
6. Drangey
7. Blodshämd







It's only been a year since the first debut "Storm" came out, but I feel a lot has changed in the Panphage camp. There's just been some extreme refinement in the song writing and it hit around the split with Thul. This is also one of the first Panphage releases to to be published on CD, aside from the compilation earlier in 2016. With this change comes a label change as well and Nordvis has put together a really nice digipak design, which I've come to expect from the label. They always do an excellent job supporting and artists musical and art directions. Panphage has always favored simplicity, but there's a track by track explanation of the story that inspired the song.

"Drengskapr" feels more hyper focused on striking that chord between folk and Black Metal, which makes this feel like even more of an advancement of the early Arckanum sound to me. The primitive nature of everything just seems so reminiscent to those early albums I still listen to quite often today. Now, Panphage isn't a rip-off by any means, they're doing a lot of different stuff, but it still hits that similar atmosphere for me. Panphage just escalate it and take things to an entirely new level for me. Where Arckanum went more the meditative/droning route, Panphage went the upbeat/catchy route. However, Panphage still manages to remain with a dark atmosphere for the most part. The folkier lead guitar licks are certainly more upbeat, but it's usually performed amidst more sorrowful segments. You'll even hear touches of ambience underlying the song, giving that droning touch to the songs a little bit. One of the more brilliant things that happened on this album is "Glamsyn", which is this clean guitar segment with absolutely loads of reverb/delay. It's a wonderfully haunting track and when it first shows up you think that's all it is. Perhaps this is a bit of musical foreshadowing, because when we get to "Blodshämd" we find this is the main riff of the song, in all its glory of heavily distorted guitars.

"Drengskapr" is quickly becoming one of my favorite albums out there. It will easily hit the top ten for 2016, that's for sure. If you've been following Panphage for a while, then this album is a real stand out effort in their discography. This is by far the ultimate starting point to delve into this project and I can't imagine people being disappointed. Even though the production is more on the raw side, everything is still pretty easy to hear and in this case it really adds to the overall atmosphere of the album. That raw natural grit is simply perfect for music like this!

Panphage - Genom Konst & Krig
Ætergap Productions, 2016
Genre: Black Metal

Disc 1:
Jotunmodi:
1. Thul: Bloteld
2. Utgårdahovet
3. Muspel
4. Urthurs
5. Jotunmodi
6. Thursamodir
Ætt Loka:
7. Thule: Offergap
8. Olios
9. Likrå
10. Ormblot
11. Thriggia Thursa Fadir
12. Urthurs Pt. II
Ursvöl:
13. Thule: Maran
14. Skall & Skalv
15. Svartinånfödda yngel
16. A Haugi
17. Ursvöl
18. Illa Sett (Glum cover)

Disc 2:
Gradr Nedan:
1. Thul: Hämnaren
2. Dögun i undirheimum
3. Thrudmodgi Iotunn
4. Under Sotröda Vingar
5. Sökkdalir
6. Gradr
7. Lemlästad & i Snö Förborgad
8. Nedan
Nordlandets Dödsande:
9. Thul: en Objuden Gäst
10. Nordlandets Dödsande
11. Svarta Vågor
12. Kynjamein
13. Fredlös
14. Livlös
15. Thul: Hlidskjalf

This is an extremely impressive re-release of all the material released under the Ætergap banner. This collects all the previous demo tapes plus "Jotunmodi". The only material it doesn't include is the material released on Satanic Propaganda in the very early years. Based on the very first demo tape I own, I can see why this early material wouldn't fit into what Panphage eventually became. However, starting with "Jotunmodi" makes some sense because it's where the writing took a far more serious turn as far as I can tell.

If you missed out on the relevant prior tapes then this is a must own collection of material. It comes in a beautiful A5 digibook packaging. In addition to all of the music collected under one banner there are newly composed intros by Thul, which is the Ambient side of Panphage. We heard this on the last tape "Ginnheilagr". The Ambient material newly designed for this release is similar in feel as what we heard on the previous tape. However, it's more infrequent, so it stands out more solidly to me. I think having every other track of Ambient is what made that a more challenging release. Luckily that problem doesn't occur on here. The material has gone through some slight re-mastering to bring everything together more coherently. So, this is a slightly improved listen if you also have the original tapes.

Inside the digibook you'll find the two CD's that span the collection and a booklet (also A5) glued to the inside cover. I usually prefer my booklets being entirely separate from the packaging, but we don't get much of a choice here. The booklet is actually really well done. Inside there is commentary on each tape release on what was being used for inspiration. There is also a song or two where the lyrics are published for each tape release. They don't have all the lyrics published, which was slightly disappointing, but having a couple songs that were meaningful to the creator are always nice to read through.

If you're a Panphage fan I would consider this a must have. A lot of the material on those tapes is really well made, especially the last two tapes. Truly excellent and inspiring material. I'm glad they were able to give the material the light of day in this format for those that couldn't track down the original tape releases.

Panphage & Þul - Ginnheilagr
Ætergap Productions, 2015
Genre: Black Metal/Ambient

1. Þul - Canis
2. Panphage - Konungr/Lopt
3. Þul - Lynx
4. Panphage - Släkten solen ser i åkrar sjunka ned
5. Þul - Ursus
6. Panphage - Ginnheilug goð
7. Þul - Ginnheilagr









This split tape would be hard to review if you split up the releases. Basically this is a split between Black Metal and Ambient, which have always crossed paths, essentially, since both genres have existed. The way they've formatted this release the Ambient of Þul is intertwined with the Black Metal of Panphage as they alternate tracks on this release. I believe this tape was limited to 300 copies and it comes with a pro-printed booklet and stickers on the cassette itself.

The Þul material somewhat outweighs the Panphage material, but that's probably because these Ambient pieces serve as an intro and outro the album as a whole. The Ambient pieces retain that meditative quality that you expect from Ambient, but it also has a more primitive old world sort of atmosphere and edge to them. A lot of this is generated through the sheer simplicity of it and the more organic and natural feel of some of the instruments, even if they were digitally re-created. At times it reminds me a bit of the tracks created by Rajna, since they used a lot of authentic old instruments.

Now, the Panphage material is some of the finest Panphage material ever created and it's almost a real shame that we only get four songs out of this release. The first song "Konungr/Lopt" is by far my favorite Panphage song ever created. It's a track I can listen to over and over again with that overly catchy opening lick just instantly pulling us in. Sometimes when a track this good appears on a release it tends to overshadow the other songs on here. Luckily this doesn't happen to much on this release. While "Lopt" is, no doubt, the strongest track the other two Panphage tracks really hold their own quite well too. Every song has incredibly ear-catching riffing and an atmosphere that is just perfect for the project.

As with the other Panphage tapes, this release was later pressed to CD. Similar to the other releases this was pressed by Nordvis in 2017 and it features a new booklet with different artwork. It also features lyrics for two of the songs, but, sadly, it does not have my favorite one.

If you are a Panphage fan then this split is an absolutely must hear experience. If you're turned off by the ambient, at least with the CD edition you can skip all that stuff now... but it probably does take away from the overall intended experience. Either way, all three Panphage tracks are really well done.

Panphage/Jarnvidr - Gøthalandom
Ætergap Production, 2015
Genre: Black Metal

Panphage:
1. Söner av Orsämjans Länder
2. Hagalaz Automat
3. Black Dawn Guerilla
4. Tag till Vapen
5. Gøthalandom
Jarnvidr:
6. Helveteseld Faller från Himmelen
7. Hagelstorm
8. Klockringing i Dalen och Åkallan av Makterna
9. Det Svarta Vattnets Gåva

Side Jarnvidr: ...coming eventually...
Side Panphage:

Unlike the "Storm" album, the material composed on this split was actually written in 2015. So, it's nice to see Fjällbrandt returning to writing for this project again. He seems to go through massive creative bursts with this project that span years, but then it tapers off, then a few years later returns with more material. This also seems to be one of the first CD's released by Ætergap Productions, but like the tapes this is limited to 300 copies as well. It comes as a beautiful digipak with additional booklet inside. The booklet has pictures and art for both projects as well as liner notes.

Even though there is some decent time in between the recorded material of "Storm" and this, the material on this split basically picks up where "Storm" leaves off. In some respects I feel like this material is a bit more primitive in style and recording, but still maintains that solid blend of Black Metal and folk-ish style. "Black Dawn Guerrilla" is, by far, one of the catchier songs from Panphage ever written. The whole concept of this material is dedicated to the Westrogothian men from the 1400's who fought the nobility. As usual with Panphage, the songs are very well written and have that atmosphere that has been ever present on their earlier recordings.

Panphage - Storm
Ætergap Production, 2015
Genre: Black Metal

1. Lugnet
2. Storm
3. Vid Kusten
4. Sävgetens Folk
5. Frusna Varsel
6. Hemmavid
7. Förfäder
8. Fenomen








It's been quite a while since Panphage has put out material after producing something consistently every year. However, after such a long wait they return with their debut full-length album after existing for ten years. The material was composed between 2011 and 2012, but between 2013 and 2015 it was finally cut to tape. This tape is limited to 300 copies and comes in some excellent packaging. The tape comes in a velvet bag with the tape inside and a scroll of paper. The tape is housed in a simple slipcase with the above featured cover. The scroll features a thank you and liner notes as well as a track by track explanation behind each songs motivation. Overall a very special product to commemorate these ten years of Panphage.

I was a little late to the Panphage game and I believe "Storm" was actually my first experience with the project, which prompted me to track down everything I could find.  Since this music was composed so closely to "Nordlandets Dödsande", "Storm" is certainly similar, but there's a certain level of refinement in the writing on "Storm" that I feel pushes the Panphage ideology even further. I think this is where Panphage truly solidified its sound and simply ran with it. There's nothing out there that quite sounds exactly like this, the combination of rawness, hatred, and traditional themes reminds me quite a bit of what Arckanum is famous for. However, Panphage builds on what Arckanum has done before and adds in more and more layers that make for an even more exciting listen, in my opinion. The manner in which the catchier sections are composed has a lot more force behind them than in a lot of other projects I've listened to and at the same time Panphage manages to construct this timeless atmosphere that is somewhat modern, but feels like it hearkens back to the days of old.

Now if you had the misfortune of missing out on the original tape release, "Storm" was finally re-released on CD by Nordvis Produktion in 2017. They produced a beautiful multi-panel digipak edition for us. It features new artwork and the lyrics to two of the songs on the album. I assume the two songs chosen have more meaning for Fjällbrandt, or they convey more of what he wants for the Panphage project. I doubt the material was remastered, but music, even more raw Black Metal, is recorded on computers these days, so cutting the digital extract onto CD probably maintains the full sound a lot more. So, "Storm" feels a lot more loud and full compared to the original tape as far as I can tell.

Every time I listen to a Panphage recording, I feel inspired. There's something about Panphage that feels triumphant amidst all the disdain and hatred for the modern world and modern man. I hope with the release of "Storm" we'll have a steady wave of releases of this nature. At least that's what I was hoping back when I first heard this release and I certainly got my wish... can't wait for the next installment!

Panphage - Nordlandets Dödsande
Ætergap Production, 2011
Genre: Black Metal

1. Nordlandets dödsande
2. Kynjamein
3. Svarta vågor
4. Fredlös
5. Livlös











A mere few months since the last release and we already have a new Panphage tape ready to go! After the last release I was really excited to hear what "Nordlandets Dödsande" would bring us. As with before, it's released on cassette with a pro-printed tape and booklet. This time all the lyrics are published for us to read...and for those of us who understand Swedish, which is not me.

Now, "Nordlandets Dödsande" is a good and solid release, but it just doesn't have the same level of magic for me that "Gráðr Neðan" possessed. There's just something in the writing on that release that was immense and "Nordlandets Dödsande" feels more like a return to the earlier release style. Which is great stuff, but doesn't hit as hard. "Nordlandets Dödslande", while being in the vein of Raw Black Metal, has a decidedly more upbeat approach to all the songwriting. This is probably an attempt to incorporate the "happier" sounding folk melodies, whereas before he would usually choose more triumphant of darker styles. "Nordlandets Dödsande" still has that quality triumphant sound, it's just painted in a more positive light this time around, but it still manages to remain in the realms of raw and grim. A lot of the material is still making me think of projects like Arckanum quite a bit.

In the end, even though I didn't like this as much as the prior release, it's still very good material. The experiment he delved into felt like a faster version of Storm at times, so it had a lot more emphasis on Folk aspects. Even though he will change up the sound and approach of the project from time to time, I still look forward to what's to come, because even though there have been slight changes here and there, all the material is still quite good at the end of the day.

Panphage - Gráðr Neðan
Ætergap Production, 2011
Genre: Black Metal

1. Dögun í undirheimum
2. þrudmoþgi iotunn
3. Under sotröda vingar
4. Sökkdalir
5. Gráðr
6. Lemlästad & i snö förborgad
7. Neðan









Another year and another Panphage tape. This one really pushes the envelope from "Ursvöl" in a truly excellent direction. As before this is released on cassette with a pro-booklet and pro-tape. The booklet is a really nice multi-panel booklet with the lyrics to a few songs written out.

Gráðr Neðan is a far more expansive journey than the previous releases, mainly due to the fact that it simply has more tracks. However, the musical composition feels a lot more mature and well thought out. This release marries the Black Metal atmosphere with some excellent Thrash and Folk moments to really hook us in like never before. Every song is wonderfully crafted. For me, "Gráðr Neðan" is where Panphage took a turn artistically into something of a higher quality project. There aren't any songs that stand in the background, and I daresay there aren't even any filler riffs. Everything feels attention grabbing, and maybe that's one of the reasons I feel like this release is much more intense than the others.

When a band finally hits this caliber of composition I want them to stop making these shorter releases and put out a full length. So, hopefully Panphage will be heading in that direction soon. However, if you're first delving into the world of Panphage, while the prior releases are pretty good, this is where the material starts to grow far beyond the original material, so starting here is a good spot.

Panphage - Ursvöl
Ætergap Production, 2010
Genre: Black Metal

1. Skall & Skalv
2. Svartmånfödda Yngel
3. A Haugi
4. Ursvöl
5. Illa Sett (Glum cover)











Another year yields, yet another tape, from Panphage. Given the constant improvement of the project I was certainly looking forward to new material. As with the other tapes on this label the cover is pro-printed and is limited to 300 copies.

"Ursvöl" isn't as heavy in style compared to the prior release. It's probably closer to the material we heard on the "Jotunmodi" release. Rather than heaviness, this album creates a generally darker atmosphere overall. However, those catchier guitar licks and riffs that have become a staple of the Panphage sound are still ever present throughout the release. "Skall & Skalv" is clear demonstration of this. This material feels even more infused with Black Metal, and for some reason I keep coming back to Arckanum whenever I hear Panphage material like this. Although, "Ursvöl" seems like it is more influenced by the more melodic styled Black Metal bands out there. At times hear early Enslaved and early Einherjer in their sound a bit as well, but this is probably due to the dose of folk style meshed into the sound.

I quite prefer the style on "Ursvöl" a bit more than the last tape. It has more of the atmosphere I am looking for in my music. Either way this is, yet another, great Panphage release and I look forward to whatever comes next. Since, I'm sure there will be another tape for us in the following year!

Panphage - Ætt Loka
Ætergap Production, 2009
Genre: Black Metal

1. Olios
2. Likrå
3. Ormblot
4. Thriggia Thursa Fadir
5. Urthurs Pt. II











A year after Panphage's foray into the digital world they swiftly returned to tape releases. This time on a new label for Panphage. This comes with a pro-printed cover and is limited to 300 copies. "Ætt Loka" builds on "Jotunmodi," but also experiments with different elements than before.

This release winds up being a much heavier release than "Jotunmodi". Those catchy riffs built on the back of more folk elements are still ever present in the sound, of course, but he's upped the general intensity and heaviness this time around. Here you'll find a lot more palm muting riffs than before, but Panphage manage to keep everything sounding like they're mainly in the Black Metal realm for writing this material. The songwriting is much improved as well and everything feels a lot more cohesive in the grand scheme of things. It feels more like he wrote an "album" than a collection of songs that sort of fit thematically. I also appreciated "Likrå" a lot, because it has a similar idea to the closing track of "Jotunmodi", but this time I feel like everything fit together better. Unfortunately, the main riff on "Thursamodir" fit with the female vocals even better. The other strange thing you'll here is the experimentation with some more dissonant riffing a few times in this album. Just listen to the opening of "Ormblot", I would expect that more from a Blut aus Nord release.

I think the only major complaint I can level at this is I feel like atmosphere has been sacrificed for heaviness. Which was probably the intended goal given how it is persistent throughout the whole release. However, I enjoy the stronger songwriting this time around and it maintains enough of that groove from the prior album to keep my attention and enjoyment through the release. Again, looking forward to even more of this, because it sounds like the material is getting even stronger. Maybe he'll find a good balance between heaviness, atmosphere, and catchiness on future material.

Panphage - Jotunmodi
Self-Released, 2008
Genre: Black Metal

1. Utgårdalhovet
2. Muspel
3. Urthurs
4. Jotunmodi
5. Thursamodir

Unfortunately I have never heard the Panphage material prior to this release, except for the very first tape. After a string of demo tapes released on Satanic Propaganda Panphage turned to the digital market and self-released this material onto the internet. It doesn't have any kind of cover associated with it, which is disappointing. However, I did read that "Jotunmodi" is quite different from the earlier demos and this is where the Panphage legacy really begins in sound and motivation.

"Jotunmodi" is a really cool demo with some good ideas and experimentation of the newer Panphage sound, there's also some ideas that don't work out as well, but for the most part it works. All the songs feel heavily rooted in an Arckanum style and recording approach to the music. There's also a fair dose of a folk feel injected into the music, so it feels reminiscent of the older days of Viking Metal at times. This adds an interesting groove to the Arckanum style. I think Fjällbrandt is still sorting out the particulars of composing Panphage material. He has some chuggier guitar moments that don't fit with some of the groovier sections. Then in "Jotunmodi" there's this random shred solo that immediately kills all hope for atmosphere. "Thursamodir" is one of the best and one of the worst tracks on this. It has this immense atmospheric riff and when the female vocals kick in over it, it's absolutely spectacular. But his bridges and some of the other riffs thrown in here pull us out of that amazing atmosphere he was building. It really is too bad, because this could have been one of the best Panphage songs ever composed... I almost wish he would revisit this song and re-work it a little bit. In light of that, the first two tracks are probably the strongest on this release. "Utgårdalhovet" has some wonderful atmosphere and especially nice riffs to catch our attention.

I don't know what earlier Panphage sounded like, but "Jotunmodi" is a very strong showing for shifting styles. I think there are still some kinks to work out, but Panphage has some rock solid foundation to build on with this approach. I really look forward to hearing what's in store next.

Panphage - Panphage
Satanic Propaganda Records, 2005
Genre: Black Metal

1. Intro
2. Elva Stigar Skymtas
3. Av Röta Besatt
4. Akhera Goiti-Akher Beiti
5. Pan Panphage











When back tracking Panphage's catalog this tape and the following two demos are very challenging to find. However, I was lucky to get my hands on this material and I purchased this out of curiosity because it seems Fjällbrandt sort of ignores this very early material. When Panphage re-released all their old demos it started at the release of "Jotunmodi" and ignored these first three, so I was wondering how primitive or terrible they might actually be. These early Panphage releases were put out on Satanic Propaganda Records and no limitation is listed, though I'm sure there is some type of limitation. This comes with a pro-printed insert on a dubbed tape. The insert isn't anything special, just the cover and a panel with track listing and line saying "recorded during fullmoon and fever in december 2005." So, this basically went from recording to release in a month.

Musically, this isn't anything particularly special. However, we get hints of what Panphage would later morph into in songs like "Elva Stigar Skrymtas" and "Akhera Goiti-Akher Beiti". In fact the riff in the latter was certainly re-used to better purpose on a different song. Tracks like "Av Röta Besatt" are really different from the more usual Arckanum inspired Panphage material. This has almost depressive Black Metal elements in it, but it has some heavier moments, but it lacks that strange upbeat dark groove that Panphage can generate. The songs lack any real cohesive style throughout the tape, so each song is just a disjointed sequence of riffs that may or may not fit together. There are some decent on ideas on here, but Fjällbrandt is sort of correct to leave these demos to history, since the style did become far more cohesive and well developed.

In the end this is a fun curiosity to have in my Panphage collection. As you can tell on this site I like hearing everything from my favorite projects whether it is good or bad material. Panphage clearly got off to a fairly rocky start, but over the years the sound was refined and turned into one of my favorite projects around. Unless you're truly a die-hard Panphage fan and must hear this early material it's mostly worth skipping this. Maybe a single listen out of curiosity, but it really doesn't have much in the way of replay value.