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.

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.

Sarrgh

Sarrgh - Black Hate and Doom
Christhunt Productions, 2005
Genre: Black Metal

1. The Last Northern Warrior
2. The Path of Despair
3. Ancient Sky
4. Black Hate and Doom
5. Cold Winds of Grimly Forest
6. Die Kalte Klinge
7. Satanischer Zorn
8. Salute to Christ








I ran across this release when I was looking at Maniac Butcher's page and found that Vlad played bass in this project. Naturally, I missed out on this release when it first came out and didn't delve into it until 2018. It truly is hard to get all the releases out there when they're first released, but I tracked this down and got the copy recently. This CD is limited to 666 copies, but I'm sure there are many still floating around since this release didn't exactly tear through the scene as a must have.

As you can imagine this is Black Metal of the raw variety, it truly has that early 90's production, but it's made well enough to hear everything. The mixing is a bit suspect and the cymbals sound weird at times. The vocals are probably the worst part of this album, they're really blown out and don't sound very good at all. Other than that, musically, this reminds me a lot of the German material that was coming out in the late 90's, but with some more Heavy Metal moments thrown in more in line with Darkthrone's combination. It's more than just sawing away at a guitar for five minutes on every song, so in that regard Sarrgh is a bit more interesting to listen to. However, as far as a debut release goes, the material isn't that bad and the songs capture that cold ancient atmosphere from the early era of Black Metal.

I would never say Sarrgh is a must have and you rush out and buy it right away, but it is a cool little release that does a good job of paying homage to bygone era. If Sarrgh had continued to release material I do wonder if this project would have improved a lot, since bands that start like this tend to improve their writing a lot more as they continue on. Unfortunately after this they only released a 7" that I have yet to track down and we haven't heard from the band since.

Funeral Winds

Funeral Winds - Sekhmet
 New Era Productions, 2015
Genre: Black Metal

1. Seven Arrows, Knife and Flame - Sekhmet
2. Sinister Creed













After the successful release of "Nexion XUL" I had no idea Funeral Winds would essentially go on the back burner for quite a while. Just when I thought Funeral Winds was about to hit their prime the whole project just stopped. Well here are eight years later and suddenly I started seeing posts surface about new recordings. I was, naturally, very excited about this since I really enjoyed the last two Funeral Winds albums. Probably to prove the project wasn't dead they quickly released two new songs on this 7" release, which I ordered as soon as I could. This release is limited to 500 copies, but no limitation is listed on the packaging.

The two new songs from Funeral Winds are certainly promising. Sadly Balgradon is no longer drumming in the project, I imagine things got too busy with Infinity, since that is his main project. Funeral Winds is now down to just Hellchrist and a session from from Germany calling himself MZI. MZI drums for the band Kvltist. He does a great job with the Funeral Winds material, he's a bit more heavy on the blasting than Balgradon was and he, naturally, lacks the overall flair Balgradon threw into his arrangements. Unfortunately, most drummers don't do that kind of arranging. So, the new Funeral Winds falls into the brand of Black Metal that is a more punishing blast heavy style. Luckily Hellchrist's riffs match this style perfectly and we get a very evil and intense sounding composition. The second song "Sinister Creed" has some serious Gorgoroth worship going on and that was interesting to hear, because with the Gorgoroth style drums it creates this sort of grinding effect (no, not like the genre). Switching between that and the more standard arrangement for Funeral Winds created quite an excellent song, the only bad part of the song is that it is quite short at under three minutes. However, if this is is indicative of what's to come from Funeral Winds on a future full-length I am absolutely excited and eager to hear it. It may not be like the glory days, but it sounds like it will certainly be a great release nonetheless.

Funeral Winds - Nexion XUL
Sadolust Records, 2007
Genre: Black Metal

1. The Old Serpent Stirs
2. Fasten Upon Mankind the Eye of Death
3. The Blood of Chaos
4. Anzu
5. The Cursed Bloodline
6. The Luminous Dissolves
7. Den of the Malignant Ones
8. Alkatu Destroyed
9. I Call Upon the Deep






After the amazing "Koude Haat" I was really excited to hear the next album from Funeral Winds. At least we didn't have to wait as long between albums this time around, but it still took a while before this one came out. Still, I'm more a proponent of not rushing an album and I'd rather musicians work slowly and really put out the best material they can come up with rather than just put out albums for the sake of putting out albums. Now, if you were expecting "Koude Haat" part two, that's not really what we've got here.

"Nexion XUL" is a pretty good follow-up to "Koude Haat", but I'm still reeling from how excellent that album was. Personally, I don't think "Nexion XUL" is a better album, but it is a very good album nonetheless. Funeral Winds have finally put that extra something into their music that makes me coming back for more. There is a lot of similarities between the two albums, but "Nexion XUL" sounds more powerful and evil and a lot of that is coming from the production as well as the riffs. Just listen to "The Cursed Bloodline" and you'll see what I mean. It seems Hellchrist has gotten tired of dealing with other studios and merely created his own. Balgradon recorded the drums in his own studio. The end result is production that seems a bit cleaner, but also feels a bit more compressed compared to the insanity of "Koude Haat". "Nexion XUL" has much better production and everything is a lot more balanced, so the strength of the recording really shows through quite a bit more. "Koude Haat" felt a lot more untamed by comparison, but it also felt way more vicious and intense because of that fact. "Nexion XUL" feels more tame, but at the same time a lot darker and more evil, which I believe is really what Hellchrist has always wanted his music to sound like, but just wasn't achieving that feel, especially in the early days. Back then he wasn't writing riffs that sounded very threatening, but on "Nexion XUL" they're all over the place, so it makes for a much more immense listen.

While "Nexion XUL" sounds and feels different from "Koude Haat" it's still an excellent album. It's has a lot of great songs on here and a performance that certainly exceeds what we heard on "Koude Haat". It will certainly be interesting to see where Funeral Winds takes things from here now that I believe they're starting to lock into their sound.

Funeral Winds - Koude Haat
Death to Mankind Records, 2004
Genre: Black Metal

1. When the Funeral Winds Cry for Revenge
2. Soul Harvest
3. Koude Haat
4. Carnage in the Temple of Jeruzalem
5. From the Depth of the Earth
6. The Wicked are the Wise
7. Dawn of the Bestial Bloodshed
8. The Beast Within
9. Raised by the Fury of the Ancient Ones






Funeral Winds has had quite the hiatus going since the release of their debut and even longer when you consider that album was recorded back in 1995. So it's been nearly a decade since Funeral Winds has reared its hateful head. The hiatus proved to be a good thing in my mind because here we have "Koude Haat", one of the most hateful and vicious sounding Black Metal albums around.

As seems to be typical with Funeral Winds there have been more line-up changes, but here we have a new drummer that truly fits perfectly with this sound, Balgradon XUL. Balgradon is from the band Infinity and I highly encourage people to check out this project as well! "Koude Haat" wouldn't be nearly as awesome of a release if it wasn't for Balgradon's masterful drum work taking Hellchrist's riffs and making them into a punishing force. It sort of reminds me of the work Endstille is putting out at this time. This raw and cold style of Black Metal, but Funeral Winds throws a good deal more catchy riffs into the mix. The real stand out for that is the chorus to "Koude Haat", which is by far my favorite song on the album. I actually quite like the production on this album, because while it has this sort of raw lo-fi quality, you can still hear everything pretty well. It has this razor sharp thinned out guitar feel, but with the roaring bass to fill out the rest of the spectrum it works really well. The drums are really powerful, perhaps a bit too loud in the mix at times, but it works well enough.

"Koude Haat" is an extremely good album and quite a shock coming out of Funeral Winds, because their prior material wasn't exactly like this. This album has such raw cold hatred underlying every moment that it is just perfect from beginning to end. Now that Funeral Winds has hit this level of composition I'm really looking forward to anything they do next, I hope they won't be on hiatus for nearly as long and they don't have line-up changes. I, especially, hope they don't lose this drummer because he is perfect for this project.

Funeral Winds - Godslayer XUL
Daimonion, 1998
Genre: Black Metal

1. For the Glory of XUL
2. A Diabolical Meeting
3. Thy Eternal Flame
4. Visions of Afterlife
5. Resurrection of the Five Winds
6. When Twilight Shines Over the Forgotten Fields
7. Screaming for Grace
8. Night of the Utterdark
Inferi:
9. The Raven's Son (Birth of a Warlock
10. December (Cry for War)
11. Siren Voice of the Ancient
12. In the Sign of Chaos

It seems like it took quite a while for Funeral Winds to finally get a full-length out and when you read into this release there were a lot of problems. When you read the liner notes you'll find this was recorded all the way back in 1995, but it didn't see the light of day until 1998. It's strange because there were some serious line-up changes from even the split with Abigail. They have an entirely new drummer on this release. I also missed out on the original 1998 press of this release and I own the re-release from 2002 published by Death to Mankind Records. This has bonus tracks from a side project called Inferi that also features almost everyone in Funeral Winds. However, this was a side project called Inferi which were recorded in 1997, but were never released until now.

The debut album from Funeral Winds covers a lot of new territory and features re-recordings of some earlier songs. I wonder if they just wanted to hear the earlier songs with the new drummer who is clearly much better than the original drummer they had, but he was getting much better with every release, so it's strange to see them switch. Anyway this album starts off with the campiest intro song ever, "For the Glory of XUL". If it only had the "eerie" keyboards it would have been fine, but then the guttural vocals kick in saying something stupid and it just kills it. It sounds lame and campy. So, I was surprised that after such a bad start things picked up quite a bit better. I sort of new what to expect after hearing the other Funeral Winds albums, but I was impressed with how good the new drummer sounds. He's a lot more solid and clearly much faster, I think he outpaces the guitars in a couple parts so it feels off here and there. This was recorded in the same studio as all their other material, but this album sounds quite a bit better than everything else they've done so far. Even "Thy Eternal Flame" came out a lot better than the original version. For a 1995 recording this sounds pretty good, I think it was just released way too late and by 1998 this had become quite generic, so the release would fall on fairly deaf ears. I certainly don't remember anyone mentioning the band to me during this time frame and I ordered music from all over the world back then too. "Godslayer XUL", unfortunately, is merely an okay debut album, they're getting better, but they still don't capture my imagination with their writing yet.

The Inferi tracks are quite different, but they're also much newer in terms of composition. I really liked this material and I'm glad they decided to finally release it. The songs are a good deal more atmospheric and have a much more mature writing style. Hellchrist did the vocals on this and they sound a good deal better than any of the vocalists he's had in Funeral Winds. Anyway, these Inferi tracks really make this re-release worth hearing.

For a debut album, "Godslayer XUL" is certainly a lot better than the previous releases, but it still lacks that certain something that would make the album truly good. Instead it sounds like a lot of other basic Black Metal that's been released over the years. Hopefully Funeral Winds will keep writing and working on songs to try and come into their own and write something truly worthwhile. The Inferi tracks show that they are clearly capable of that.

Funeral Winds & Abigail - Screaming for Grace
Warmaster Records, 1995
Genre: Black Metal

Funeral Winds:
1. Twilight Shine Upon My Crypt
2. The Fiery Winds of Our Revenge
3. Resurrection of the Five Winds
4. Screaming for Grace
5. Liar of Golgotha
Abigail:
6. Attack with Spell
7. Dead God - King of Kemet
8. The Crown Bearer
9. We Shall Not Await the Dawn
10. Darkness Steals



Side Abigail: ...maybe not coming...
Side Funeral Winds:

Funeral Winds continues to make improvements in their overall sound and to present their new material they do it through a split with Japan's Abigail. I probably won't review the Abigail side because their discography is huge and I'm not really into their project anyway. I much prefer Funeral Winds anyway.

So, one thing people should know about this release is that even though it lists five tracks there are only three from Funeral Winds. The first three tracks on the Funeral Winds side are actually all in a single track. I don't know if that was an error or intentional, but either way that's what happened. I think Funeral Winds are starting to come into their own a little bit more with this release, at least they're starting to blend together more than just Darkthrone or early Gorgoroth worship. The riffs are written much better, the recording quality is stronger and the band is much tighter as a whole. I think Funeral Winds is finally on their way to putting out some solid material, especially since they're starting to write in a more mature fashion. It's not quite there yet, but it's almost there. The song "Screaming for Grace" is by far my favorite on this recording, it reminds me of another band I like, but I'm drawing a blank on who that band is.

In the end if you missed out on the material before this I'm not sure you've missed out on much, this is an excellent starting point for getting into Funeral Winds. The songs are far more interesting and they have a much stronger atmosphere. They're still worshiping the Norwegian style of Black Metal, but on this recording they do a much more interesting job of it.

Funeral Winds - Thy Eternal Flame
Black Arts Productions, 1994
Genre: Black Metal

1. Thy Eternal Flame
2. Steps of Ritual













This is the first 7" vinyl EP Funeral Winds put out and it came very shortly after their demo on Pagan Records. It may seem like they're repeating material here, but even though these songs showed up on the last tape they were actually live recordings. These are studio recording of these two songs.

This is just a continuation of the material and writing style we heard on "Resurrection..." However, the recording quality is a little bit better, in my opinion anyway. It seems the band has gotten better at playing as a unit this time around. The music feels like a crossover of Gorgoroth and Darkthrone, especially "Steps of Ritual". It sounds like the band is doing well enough to the point where they can start delving into full-length territory, provided they consistently write enough material. After hearing these re-recordings I'm a bit more interested in hearing what they have in store next. The opening of "Thy Eternal Flame" kind of sounds like Dani Filth with the way he basically chirps the vocal line, so that sounds a little off, but the rest is pretty good old school Black Metal... or well general Black Metal, seeing as how this was written and released so long ago.

Funeral Winds - Resurrection...
Pagan Records, 1994
Genre: Black Metal

1. Demon Overture (Intro)
2. Dawn of the Apocalypse
3. Resurrection of the Five Winds
4. Steps of Ritual
5. Thy Eternal Flame











This is actually Funeral Winds' third demo tape. The first being a rehearsal I've never seen before and the second being "La Majestie Infernable", which I have only heard a couple tracks from. I the early 2000's a bunch of bootlegs showed up around the world and that was one of them. Even though it bears the name of the second demo, it only has two songs from that tape and features most of the songs on this tape and then their split with Abigail. So, I've only heard two songs from that demo and they were noisy, harsh, and generally not that great. That brings us to "Resurrection..." and this is a pro-printed cassette on Pagan Records. It's pro booklet with stickers on a dubbed tape and while I'm sure there's a limitation, none is listed on the tape itself.

"Resurrection..." certainly sounds a lot better than the material I heard from "La Majestie Infernable." The music isn't as noisy and even though it still has that raw do-it-yourself approach, it's mixed in a much better fashion. The band is also tighter and feels more together than the prior demo.  "Resurrection...", while not a bad demo, still feels more like a major Darkthrone clone than anything else. The songs are spectacularly stand-out, but I don't remember much from when Funeral Winds first came out and listening to it in 2018 in retrospect is kind of hard to put into perspective. There's just been so much tried and true Darkthrone worship demos in my life.

If you're a fan of the band and really interested in the roots of the project then this is certainly worth checking out. Only Hellchrist Xul is still involved in the project, since it's his project, so it was interesting to delve back into the past and hear the first members of the band. Either way it's fun to listen to how bands start out.

Trist (Ger)

Trist - Willenskraft
Cold Dimension, 2009
Genre: Dark Ambient/Black Metal

1. Bewusstsein
2. Wagemut
3. Zweifel
4. Herzenswunsch
5. Verhinderer
6. Wandlung









Here it is, the final installment of Trist before putting the project to rest. This time returning to Cold Dimension for the release and put out in the usual digipak format to match up with the others. There's no booklet and no limitation listed, but this is certainly limited in some capacity.

This seems to follow an alternating format of Ambient track then Black Metal track. This album is a little disappointing in this regard, because it seems like it would be a favorite of mine, but it's really not. The Ambient parts of this album are even more lackluster than "Initiation". That strong dark and horror vibe from "Fort" is not developed here, in fact it's not even present. I feel like Tristan was trying to make something more majestic than horrifying. The Ambient tracks all sound the same and they're basically a sample of ocean waves crashing on the shore. Again, this would make for great intro/outro filler between Black Metal tracks, but they're full on songs, so its a solid eight minutes of this. The first song with Black Metal in it, "Wagemut" sounds like a one riff Lunar Aurora song. There might be vocals, its hard to tell if they are samples or screaming by Tristan because its so far in the background. This time around though the balance between the guitars and drums is much more balanced. By the time the second Black Metal song shows up, "Herzenswunsch", I'm convinced that these are just riffs from Lunar Aurora's "Andacht". In fact, a lot of the metal parts feel like they are off that specific album. Tristan started composing this album shortly after "Andacht" was released, so maybe he got really obsessed with that format. "Andacht" also features a lot of crashing waves and while this worked wonderfully for Lunar Aurora it really doesn't work on Trist.

Unfortunatley, it seems "Willenskraft" doesn't end on much of a high note, because I'll just be listening to Lunar Aurora's "Andacht" instead as it is a far better album for my tastes. Sadly it stands that Trist's best release was "Hin-Fort" and it seems to be a one time thing. Perhaps the similarities in "Andacht" brought this project to a close as there was way too much overlap of the projects, but who knows, perhaps Tristan just lost the inspiration to try and compose this kind of material. It takes a great amount of patience to listen to this material and I can only imagine it demanded even more to compose.

Trist - Initiation
Kunsthall Produktionen, 2008
Genre: Dark Ambient

1. In die schwarze nacht
2. Toter raum
3. Kalt
4. Nirgendwo
5. Schatten
6. Darunter
7. Traurige geister
8. Hindurch
9. Fragmente





After the success of "Hin-Fort" it seems there was some demand for the earliest Trist experimentations. Here we have "Initiation" which is Ambient recordings made between 2000 and 2003 before the first album was released. You could consider this the Ambient demo that had yet to be officially released. Trist returns to Kunsthall for this release and like the debut it is limited to 500 hand-numbered copies, of which I own #302.

While I wasn't a major fan of the debut, you can imagine that "Initiation" has sort of the same response from me. If you're really into drone ambient then you may find this release extremely appealing. For me, this was before his Dark Ambient really improved on releases like "Hin-Fort". I can see why he wouldn't want to release this material as the first thing to put out there. It's not outright terrible or anything, but it just lacks some of the substance I usually prefer in Ambient releases. The atmospheres aren't as rich as some of the more stand out artists of the genre. I mainly feel like this material would serve as a great backdrop for black metal, such as the "Hin" section of the previous release, but as a stand alone release the material isn't that compelling.

If you are curious about the project and want to see the first experiments in Ambient for Tristan then this will be a novel journey to take. It's not as reach or dark as his later work, but you can see how he developed the project over the years.

Trist - Hin-Fort
Cold Dimensions, 2006
Genre: Ambient Black Metal

Disc 1: Hin:
1. Hin

Disc 2: Fort:
1. (Keine) Angst
2. Unterdenwolken
3. Hilfe
4. Schlaflos
5. Lichtausi
6. Nachtflug
7. Fort



It's been a while since we heard from Trist and they return with quite the release in this double CD format. I think Trist's original concept was to be an Ambient side project, as is usual for a lot of metal musicians, but based on this release I guess Tristan just couldn't keep away from the Black Metal. This album comes as a 2CD digipak with a fairly limited layout, but that's probably because they had to press two CD's. It's minimalistic art wise and fits the whole Trist atmosphere pretty well as usual.

The first disc is a single song lasting exactly one hour, which is fairly impressive in its own right. "Hin" is straight up Atmospheric Black Metal similar to Paysage d'Hiver, only they take us to task with the droning guitar work. The material has less variation than a Paysage d'Hiver song, but Trist is going more for a droning Ambient motif, so in this regard the track succeeds. It's extremely hypnotic and flowing, you can barely make out the riff changes as all the guitar parts are very similar. But, again, this works out brilliantly as casting Ambient music in terms of Black Metal. There's also a long monologue from someone talking about really weird space stuff and how they are space, it really works in the track, but it was still really strange. For me "Hin" worked out pretty well, however, it doesn't have the same kind of replay value as a Paysage d'Hiver song, it's probably too droning and meditative to really warrant repeat listens. It doesn't capture you the same way a Paysage d'Hiver riff does. The other slight problem with the track was how far away the drums were in the mix, but I'm pretty used to that with this type of music, Paysage d'Hiver has similar issues on their recordings. The guitars create this huge wall of sound that just dominates the audio spectrum, but that's also kind of the point.

"Fort" on the other hand is straight up Dark Ambient. I think Tristan's original concept behind the project caught up with him and he wanted to do another type of Ambient release. As with "Tiefenrausch" it bears resemblance to Atrium Carceri a lot and this Ambient goes more for a Horror type of droning feel. Coupled with the samples from all the horror movies throughout the disc you can see where this idea is coming from. I did find it amusing to hear a sample from the movie Boogeyman in "Nachtflug". I've seen some of the movies sampled, but not all of them, since I'm not a big horror movie buff. I just thought it was funny to hear Boogeyman show up, because it seemed like such a stupid movie, but the samples Tristan took actually work pretty expertly in the moments of this Ambient. I will say the Ambient journey of "Fort" is definitely a step up compared to "Tiefenrausch".

In the end if you're obsessed with the droning sounds of terror this is a must listen. You'll enjoy both sides of this release for sure. It maybe not have a huge amount of replay value, but it is exceptional at creating that mood and atmosphere it is designed for. There are very few releases out there like this as far as I can tell, at least in terms of the breadth and scope of the droning atmospheres, which is why "Hin-Fort" is probably a very highly sought after release. Very few releases do as good a job at generating this type of atmosphere as well.

Trist - Tiefenrausch (Ein Abstieg in 5 Stufen)
Kunsthall Produktionen, 2003
Genre: Dark Ambient

1. Wintermondlicht
2. Geräum
3. Kraftfeld
4. Novembernebel
5. Tiefenrausch










One of the things that attracted me to this project, aside from the fact that it is entirely done by a member of Lunar Aurora, is the fact that Kunsthall Produktionen put this out. If it's good enough for Wintherr, then it's probably more than good enough for me. As usual with Kunsthall the packaging is beautifully done with a very nicely made digipak that has art that really exemplifies the atmosphere of this project. The release is also limited to 500 hand-numbered copies and I own #210... I think... it might be #216 it's hard to tell.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this release at first. I had a vague idea, because I had seen comparisons to Paysage d'Hiver and Darkspace... although Darkspace put out their demo not too long before this was released, so Paysage d'Hiver is probably a far more apt reference. I guess I was expecting there to be Black Metal, but there is none. It's just Dark Ambient with most of the songs clocking in at over sixteen minutes. Now it's good ambient, don't get me wrong. It's very dark and very ominous. It also has this quality to it that makes it feel rather spacey. You can hear some clear Atrium Carceri influence in a lot of the recordings. However, I feel the Atrium Carceri is a far more exciting Ambient project compared to Trist. Trist seems to focus primarily on drones and creating a sort of hypnotic state. This isn't all that different compared to the type of ambient Paysage d'Hiver attempts to put out, except that I feel Trist has a darker sort of cosmic feel to it. Perhaps similar to the more droning Darkspace aspects, but Darkspace is really just using it as a backdrop for their music, whereas in Trist's case it is the music. The only major variations that show up is during the spoken word sections, which appear in every song. But it's rather sporadic, so it doesn't interrupt that meditative or droning flow of the music that much.

The fact that I saw this being advertised amidst Metal projects is a bit confusing, since this appears to be an Ambient side project of a Lunar Aurora member. This is a very common thing in Black Metal since Fenriz had Neptune Towers, Satyr had Wongraven, Ihsahn turned Thou Shalt Suffer into one and there are many more. Aran's Ambient side project is no different really, so it really depends on what you expect going into this project. If you were expecting Black Metal on par with Paysage d'Hiver you will be sorely disappointed. I confess, I was a little disappointed, I would have preferred to know this album was entirely Ambient up front, because then I just spend all my time waiting for the moment when the Metal kicks in and it never arrives... so, if you're not a fan of droning Dark Ambient that doesn't really go anywhere and instead puts you in a meditative state, then you should steer clear of this release. However, if you're an Ambient fan like many of the Black Metal listeners out there, then this might be something worth checking out. Personally, I think I have far better Ambient from the straight up Ambient artists. I will say Trist is quite a bit better than the Ambient tracks found on Paysage d'Hiver, but, to me, Ambient is not Paysage d'Hiver's strong suit, so at least Trist is more successful in that regard for me.