Beastcraft ‘Dawn of the Serpent’ Grom Records 2006
	Hot on the fiery heels of the debut album, Into the Burning Pit of Hell, comes this overview of the bands impressive demos. (The disc contains Beastcraft's 3 demos tied together + 2 bonus tracks) Here we find a ‘True Norwegian’ Black Metal band adhering to the minimalism of Darkthrones ‘Transylvanian Hunger’, whilst wallowing within a gloriously odious musical mire of their own making. The proceedings begin with the impressive, Crowning the Tyrant’ demo [2005], that just oozes that archaic Nordic Black Metal atmosphere. ‘Pentagram Sacrifice [2004], is just pure brilliance set to audio sound, a truly awe-inspiring demo that epitomised the early Norwegian scene in all its drowsy
awakenings. The likes of Gehenna are evoked during the slower tracks, whereas the bands most decisive track ‘Burnt at the Altar, [also on the debut album, and aired in a wonderfully bizarre video on the bands web site] is just magnificent. With the Satanic Supremacy demo [2004], again, issuing a barrage of tumultuous simplistic orthodox Black Metal in the vein of the aforementioned Darkthrone when Darkthrone were the very reflection of Satanic imbued evil. The bonus tracks seem to evoke the blackened thrash of Bathory, with a slight retro feel to the grizzled arrangements. All in all, this retrospective is an enjoyable release that resides in the very deepest clefts of the Norwegian Black Metal underground. Utterly essential. www.gromrecords.com/beastcraft.html
Carpticon ‘Master Morality’ Black Seed Productions 2006
	Featuring a member form Nebular Mystic and another from, Vidsyn. Here we have a direct and highly polished, decisive Black Metal, think modern Gorgoroth-Keep of Kalessin, and you will get a good idea of where this band are at, complete with corpse paint and subliminal Germanic symbolism. Raging polished guitars, snapping snares and scowling vocals drag you across a well trodden path of intense, tight and razor sharp Black Metal. There is little of the retro or the orthodox here as the band drive towards an up-to date sound that meanders along a path of melody and chopping riffs set to twisting arrangements.
On numerous plays, I found the cult American Black/Death act Arghoslent, leaping out of the arrangements, as Carpticon seem to weave similar twists that add a sense of the majestic to the overall presentation. This is average well constructed Black Metal that at times has strokes of brilliance within the song structures, yet it does all become a like for like repetitive set of songs, with the exception being the rather memorable, Rovdyr Av Doden. www.blackseedprod.com
Celestial Bloodshed ‘Truth is Truth’ 7” Apocalyptic Empire 2006
	Raging guttural vomit vocals and a relentless, unforgiving drum attack, drags this two sided plastic vinyl across a bared wire wrapped corpse. This is the no messing around aural hacking that Mord would be proud of. Flip it over, and the savage battery is replaced with a Strid like plodding of labouring guitar strains and tormented agonizing vocal bleats. The brooding slurring drum beats melt into the strained guitar lines, creating a bemoaning ambience of hateful repose and Burzum like nihilism. A pure underground release in every sense of the word. Label www.apocalypticempire.com
Faustcoven/Koldbrann split 7” Cryptia productions 2006
	Limited to 350 copies, here we have a magnificent Norwegian split, featuring two bands that are well respected in the underground. Firstly, Faustcoven with Orgy in Sodom. I loved Faustcovens Burning Halo album for all its drowsy lead weight Venom meets every mid Celtic Frost gloom. This track follows a similar darkly path of infectious groove injected doomy Black thrash. The track is very addictive with its revolving riff and along with Koldbranns flip side, this is a very worthy EP. Koldbrann give a fine performance with the thrash feeling Progrom Pestilent, a track that ignites into a blasting furnace only to sharply subside into a Celtic Frost mid-tempo style of
arrangement. Here the track resides, swooning across a carefully balances brooding melody that evokes both the retro feel of bands like the mighty Frost, early era Bathory and modern day Satyricon. Koldbrann have enough of their own charismatic style to own the track, and with two fine albums already released, this particular track is one of the strongest I have heard www.cryptiaproductions.com
I ‘Between Two Worlds’ Nuclear Blast 2006
	If you have been gasping for that Immortal comeback opus, salivating for another dose of cold Nordic Black Metal then take a step back and behold a kind of half Immortal, Half Bathory offering from main man Abbath, accompanied by other Immortal devotees, Demonaz [lyrics] and Armagedda [Drums]. To cunningly steer away from a blatant Immortal release, by taking all the letters away apart from the first, does not disguise the unavoidable fact that this is more Immortal than some would have you believe. For starters, the vocals are Abbath, and that means an unmistakable Immortal feel. [Imagine Lemmy fronting a slower version of Motorhead,
different band, same atmosphere] Add to this the equally immutable guitar style of Abbath, and the Immortal links become so close, this release could have been a follow up to, Sons of the Northern Darkness, albeit played at a slower pace. So, if you drool over Immortal you will be pleased to know this Bathory-esque style release is actually astonishingly good. If you drool over Bathorys Hammerheart period, this will ignite the old Viking flame and warm the ears on a blustery moonless night. The music here is quite simply stunning. There is a hypnotic addiction to each track where the memorable guitar arrangements swirl about the head long after the music ends. The mid-tempo plod weaves a magical spell into the air that emanates from a groove oozing from the blackened songs. This album owes as much to Heavy Metal as it does to the extremity of Black Metal, watered down to fill the cup of the many. To blatantly ignore the obvious Immortal connections is to follow the path of an idiot, as this really is as close to a drowsy version of the great Nordic band as you’ll get. No doubt the up-coming Immortal album proper will increase the tempo and velocity of the songs and yet here we have a release that, although not spectacularly original, it is spectacularly good.
Ildjarn ‘Ildjarn is Dead’ Best of Northern Heritage 2005
	Here we find all the unreleased tracks that have eluded the hardcore fan. A limited 2xCD compilation set in an A5 box and featuring a 16000 word statement by Ildjarn himself. The written statement is hard on the eyes, just as the music is hard on the ears. Both cd’s cover the very earliest Ildjarn demos and works related to home recordings and Samoth, lends his vocals to some tracks. There is a mixture of fast repetitive and elementary bursts of Black meets hardcore style metal, and sludgy lumbering gloom blenched songs. Here resides more than two hours of raw monologue Black Metal that has that simple one dimensional atmosphere found on the earliest works of bands like Crass and Conflict. Even the abandon of stateside hardcore acts like Cryptic Slaughter bare the singular severity that haunt every Ildjarn track. The anarcho punk minimalism can be applied to
Iljarns works, as the sound suffocates the air with ice cold riffs and hollow percussion. So, here we have recordings recorded on bad equipment, barely mixed and sounding like the worst out takes of the most basic of demo acts, yet here lies the purity of the music. It is from this most primitive of creative sparks that render the mind numb and convoluted with an utterly distinctive rawness. A definite release for Ildjarn fans alone. www.cfprod.com/nh/
Jotunspor ‘Gleipnirs Sender’ Satanas Rex/Cold Spring 2006
	Grim Black Metal from King [Gorgoroth] and Kvitrafn [ex Gorgoroth, Sigfader]. The crude undeveloped sound of the mid nineties is very evident here, with an almost Attila Csihar vocal delivery set to blackened riffs and howling wolven sound bites. The concept that runs throughout this release is of the old Nordic cults and beliefs, Glepnirs Smeder, exploring some of the creation and end of day myths, all sung in the native Norwegian and Norse dialect. This is an unmistakable Norwegian Black Metal release, steering clear of the blatant minimalism of Darkthrone, preferring the Viking atmospheres of early Enslaved for inspiration.
There are some ambient parts to the album that evoke an eerie trance like atmosphere where the solitude of the Nordic landscape becomes all consuming. Jotunspor have a uniqueness about them that oozes within the music, a doom laden significance to the scene as a whole, being more than just another band to complete the numbers. The Norwegian scene of late has many fine bands emerging that to my opinion will re-establish the past significance, beyond the shadow of the likes of Emperor and Satyricon. Here resides the essence of the underground, a pure, honest and sincere album of woe ordained Nordic Black Metal. www.satanasrex.co.uk
Mord ‘Christendom Perished’ Southern Lord Recordings 2006
	With the demo and 7” [featuring the demo] released in 2004, Mords Hellish musical theatre is set to Roman numerals for track titles [like the demo]. The debut release, Christendom Perished, is a relentless thud of guitar riffs, merciless drum bashing and a vocal delivery akin to a rasping ghoul having its face melted off with acid. To put it plainly, Mord play Norwegian Black Metal though the barrel of a howitzer, blasted at you from a fiery abyss in a cacophony of viciousness and savage minimalism. Like the demo, the music is set to a discordant tumult that rages within the drum battery and guitar s ruthless grinding momentum.
There are moments of retro thrash to lighten up the swirling Black Metal tempest, and the band do have a fine ability to create sustenance to their chaotic music, yet the overall picture is one of darkly malice. www.southernlord.com
Nidingr ‘Sodomize the Priest’ Hearse Records 2006
	Limited to 500 vinyl copies with side A, having a rehearsal recording from 1996, and side B containing various tracks from 1998. This is what you would call true collectors, hardcore Norwegian Black metal item, and it embraces all the great charismatic individual qualities that such a release owns. On the 1996 side, the sound is muffled to the extent of how demo recordings generally are, but here we have a very audible and how I would describe as a true underground atmosphere. The tracks range from the fast to the creeping slow, with the fuzzy guitars meandering through simple arrangements. There is, as on the bands debut album, a
penchant for constructive songs that contain memorable riffs and are not afraid to use melody in place of blatant aggression. Nidingr in 1996 were a cross between Satyricon and Burzum, set initially into that thoroughly enjoyable classic era of guitar blazing and vocal shredding snarls. Side B, 1998, two years later, and not much has changed. The guitars are thicker and the vocals less abrasive. Musically the band enters a Gehenna style groove where the harmonies flow across well fashioned arrangements that are both very accessible and smouldering with that Nordic atmosphere. A drum machine is obviously used on a ridiculously fast track, which thankfully passes in the blink of an eye. The rest is well executed Norwegian Black Metal. There are no embryonic tracks that appeared on the impressive, Sorrow Infinite and Darkness, album, none that I could distinguish anyway. This album should be re-pressed on cd, as its better than most album proper releases I come across on my other scribing duties on Live4metal.com
Sorgsvart ‘Fortapt fra Verden I Vakkert Selvmord’ Einheit Produktionen 2006
	Created by mainman, Sorg [all instruments], this Viking/Black metal release encompasses the core atmospheres of Satyricons ‘Dark Medieval Times’ with the melodic vocal harmonies that add warmth to much of Borknagars repertoire. The first track is a blatant take on Satyricons, Kvite Krists Dod song that opens Dark Medival Times. A tribute or a lack of ideas? Well, Sorgsvart have crafted an album of many faces, encompassing much of essential Black/Viking elements found in the likes of, Vanaheim and Arvinger. The aforementioned bands are all Norwegian and follow a path similar to Sorgavart in that the music is both
acoustic arranged in parts and combining a harsh/clean vocal approach. With the addition of mouth harp, flutes and a folkish backbone to the music, you get a sense of olden era Norsemen scurrying from their wooden hall, across a blanket of snow towards the great long boats creaking in the icy shallows. Great synth pieces slide amongst the weaving levels of intensity set to the complex arrangements, again glints of other Nordic acts like Kampfar and Isengard appear from time to time, and when the vocal harmonies reach their peak, the Mighty Finnish Viking act Moonsorrow seem to echo from the vibrant choral mists. This album is a strong addition to the genre and has great depth and breadth to its sound dragging what is essentially an underground release into a far more audible and solid level of Metal consumption. www.einheit-produktionen.de
Taake/Gigantomachy 10” split Agonia Records 2006
	Taake, a band that needs no introduction. A Norwegian cult underground act who have an impressive back catalogue of albums oozing with icy cold atmospheres and very well crafted music. The two tracks here, one a true to form cover of Destructions Death Trap, are injected with that distinctive Taake flair for Heavy Metal groove. The self penned track Voldtekt, follows a similar journey to the, equally splendid, Hennes Kalde Skamlepper, track on the previous split 10” with Vidsyn. It initially starts off at a fast pace but disintegrates into a head swaying guitar frenzy, evoking the best of what Metal music has to offer. Taake are a very important and exceptionally good band that will grow
from strength to strength in times to come. Gigantomachy, featuring ex-Taake member, C Corax, plus other Taake members, including Host. A relatively unknown entity with a rather bizarre name, but the two tracks here are lengthy renditions of at times unusual Black Metal outings with the odd twist set amongst the swirling guitar arrangements. The digestible music is imbued with melody and has at times a classical flavour to the atmospheres generated by a decisive mid tempo-fast construction. The off key guitar chords evoke a Ved Buenes Ende flavour, although never reaching the mind bending depths of the classic Norse act. Gigantomachy are an audible interesting band with some good ideas and set their writing creativity beyond the norm. www.agoniarecords.com
Vulture Lord ‘Blasphemy’ 7” Agonia Records 2006
	Following the fine Profane Prayer album, Vulture Lord emerge from the retro mist with this 4 track EP, that reflect the visually stunning band photos. Bullet belts, 8” spiked armlets, goat skull, corpse painted inverted cross wielding lunatics and leather biker jackets. Here we have every Black Metal cliché in one package and it all points back to the golden era of classic Celtic Frost, Bathory and Mercyful Fate. Musically the very inclusion of a surprise cover of England’s Deliverance certainly stirred by curiosity. I unearthed my 3 Deliverance albums and discovered the said track, Evil Friendship, from the same titled 1989 album. It’s a great cover and a great tribute to a band
that was far ahead of its time pertaining to the clever use of keyboards. The remaining 3 tracks are Vulture Lord in full blazing glory, fast over the top and devilishly good. There seems to be a popular return to the retro era with many bands recharging the thrash batteries and inducing their own music towards a more melodic and accessible sound. www.agoniarecords.com