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ALLEGIANCE :
HYMNS OF BLOD

This Swedish trio formed back in 1989, they have 3 previous releases to their credit, "Hymn Til Hangagud" (1997), "Blodonsoffer" (1998), and "Vrede" (1999) the last having had production handled by Hipocrisy guitarist Peter Tagtgren. The band is made up of; Bogge Svensson (Marduk) - bass/vocals, Fredrik Andersson (Marduk / Amon Amarth) - drums, and Par Thornell - guitar/vocals. This CD, "Hymns Of Blod" (yes that's Blod not Blood) seems to be a special North American only, "best of" type album. The theme here is "Viking War Metal", but most people (press) seem to only want to describe the sound as Black-Metal-ish due to having Bogge and Fredrik in the band. However, after careful listening, I would have to say that while there are many Black-Metal-isms, this also a lot to do with early Death-Metal, or even early Thrash-Metal. Even the raw sound seems to come from a 20 year old time warp. It's hard to describe the overall sound, but maybe if you put Vintersorg on steroids you'd be close to the Allegiance vibe. The songs themselves are crushing, and surprisingly memorable. The band does not simply rely on speed alone, but utilizes what so many extreme bands seem to forget about, actual melodies! Yes, that's right, melody. There are mid-tempo passages that you could actually hum to yourself, and they make the songs so much more interesting than if they were just nonstop bursts of speed. Don't think they're soft in any way, each tune is capable of twisting your guts into a ball, and ripping them out of your chest. I'm just saying that they have managed to layer this furry on top of real songs, the kind that stick in your head like some annoying commercial jingle that you can't get rid of. You know the kind, you tell everyone you hate it, but you secretly hum it all day long. In the end, this CD could appeal to a large cross over of fans, Viking, Death, Black, Thrash, Grind... if you dig any of that stuff, you will find this CD to your liking. Great stuff.
RATING = 8 Viking Death-Metal (Released 2002)

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