After
the release of the now legendary demos "Emperor" and "Wrath of
the Tyrant" here is the debut Emperor album. This album was a complete turn
around in Blackmetal, with it started the so-called 2nd wave of Blackmetal. But
let's talk about the album, it is much better than you were expecting by
listening to the demos, about that I'm sure. This album associates the typical
raw sound of that time with the melody that appeared later (probably influenced
by them). The use of the keyboards, not very common then, makes some kind of
spooky atmospheres throughout the album, but this keyboards are used in a very
good way, I mean, they do not muffle the guitars, as we can see on most of the
bands nowadays, and what a shame it would be if that happened, because the
guitars have an excellent role, playing very complex, but nonetheless melodic
riffs. About the vocalization, Ihsahn is constantly screaming, but sometimes you
can hear a clean voice, that really fits the music. But what extols the most in
this album is the transcending feeling of the executers, and that is what brings
such quality to this release. About the lyrical part, we can see that there are lots of good ideas, but the translation to English didn't work as well as they intended, because one can see very grammar errors (nothing that doesn't allow you understand the lyrics, though) .
This astonishing debut album brought Emperor to the front of the Blackmetal scene, a place that they never lost until now!
Three
years after the release of the mythical "In the Nighside Eclipse",
considered by many the best Blackmetal album ever, Emperor are back again, this
time with a new formation, but the true mentors behind the band - Ihsahn and
Samoth - remain. Many expectations were in the air, could Emperor deal with the
pressure of creating a successor for "In the Nighside Eclipse"? By
listening to this record you will understand that this is more than a successor,
for me this one even overcomes "In the Nighside Eclipse". The band
shows much more experience now and that experience combined with the creativity
in the composition of the songs, makes this a superb album.
The
band considered by most as the great leaders of the Blackmetal movement (an
opinion with which I completely agree) have returned with their third album, IX
Equilibrium.
Fast black metal based on an anti-christian philosophy, this is how the belgian Enthroned can be described. This was their fourth album, leaving behind "Prophecies of Pagan Fire", "Towards the Skullthrone of Satan" and "Regie Sathanas: A Tribute to Cernunnos". Well, there's not much of originality within this release, but
after all, the musical genre in wich they're inserted doesn't enable much more. Razor sharp riffing, a non-existent bass, constant-shrieking vocals, fast
rhythms, some occasional slow melodic parts completed with anti-christian lyrics/track titles ("The Scourge of God", for instance) is all you can expect from this record. Another important aspect to mention when we're dealing with - not only but also - black
metal is the feeling/atmosphere that should "flow out" from the music, and sincerely, I think these guys could do better than this (listen to Nargaroth's "Herbstleyd" or "Black Metal Ist Krieg" for instance and you'll understand what I'm talking about). As for the production, the drums could be better; apart from that, there's nothing more to say. My
favorite tracks here are
"Völkermord der Antigott" along with "Postmortem Penetrations" (the last one has some "solos" that I find interesting). As a final conclusion, this album isn't much compared with others released in the same year, so I prefer listening to other more interesting pieces of music.
Along with the Spanish gore grinders Haemorrhage, this quartet from
California that answers by the name of Exhumed is my only contact with the gore
thematic. With song titles such as "Open The Abcess", "Limb from
Limb" and "Casketcrusher", we couldn't expect nothing more than
pathological lyrics and sickness from this. The cover artwork isn't the best
I've ever seen, but it's quite explicit...entrails all over a kitchen, a plastic
head in a microwave (!), a chainsaw covered by intestines and a plastic hand in
a pan...that's gore enough for me, thank you very much. About the music, Exhumed
combine segments of putrescent bone-crushing Gore Grind with 85% of slicing
Death Metal...it's kind of suitable to all those who miss the early days of
Carcass (especially the lyrics...although if compared with some of The
Berzerker's lyrics, they're nothing but bedtime stories). The only negative
aspect here is bad production of the drums, looks like they were recorded in a
Portuguese studio...but that is easily surpassed. The final track of this album
is a cover version from Sodom, the well-known "Sodomy and Lust" (I'm
completely sick of Sodom cover versions). The corpses will spew their guts to
the sound of Exhumed, real fucking gore!
This
is the first release from this band rising from Porto. This demo presents a
quite varied and original Blackmetal. Namely some acoustic parts that are very
well composed and really give another touch to the songs and some samples of
painful screams and something like that. In my point of view the different
characteristics this band shows only make their sound better and more interesting,
because I'm a litle bit tired of listening to hundreds of bands copying each
other and all sounding the same.