A dark and raw recording here, but not so raw that you cannot hear the riffs that goes alongside this obscure album.  I find it to be quite interesting, better than just "decent", actually would give this an average rating because I enjoyed the music and overall aura to this album.  It's for the most part slow, but there are instances where this one emits some forcefulness.  Overall it's quite a creepy album, but admirable.  With just a little over 38 minutes all of it is not in English, however, the music is really dark and depressing.  It's a definition of what black metal should spout out, but it isn't one to emit super positive ratings as seen from others.

However, this release is still pretty cool it's entirety.  I enjoyed the production quality, the guitar riffs and the production sound.  Again it's slow but definitely worth checking out.  It wasn't one that is overtly aggressive, it's tantamount is truly admirable and not really any splint of diversity.  I think that Khold's intentions here is to demonstrate the true potential of the band, but for me, I wish that it was written in English.  That being said, it still has qualities that reflect talent and creativity.  It's well warranted that one should give it a try.  I wouldn't buy into any negative ratings, but it is just average.
One album to chill to on a wintry day, wishing that some of which dismay brings one to this reaping release quieting discontent.  The music here in its' entirety is a mixture of tremolo picking of chords and some segues into a more tranquil sound.  All and all, it's quite morbid, but palitable.  An album that points the direction to the utterly spellbinding raw appeal and darkness enthroned.  No blast beats whatsoever, it's mostly featured with mild guitar riffs with distortion and the mixing quality was to a point to where you can hear the riffs clearly plus the vocals don't overshadow the guitars or drowned them out.

Everything such as mixing quality is well done here and I think it's not an album that'll put you to sleep, it's one that musically it implies creativity and imaginary stints of havoc bleeding in utter darkness.  I do think that since the band is currently active according to records, they'll make more albums that progress from this.  But yes, average is what I ultimately think that it is.  So don't expect anything extreme here.  This is an album that is true Norwegian black metal, just a little more raw and rears it's ugly head to listeners putting you in sort of a trance with musical trauma.

Overall, I give this one a "C" because there could've been more creativity bestowed here, even though I think it's well played out.  It's not like early Darkthrone albums, it's a black metal album that's totally dark, but a production quality that emits force plus does justice in hearing everything clearly muscally and vocally speaking.  Yes, 10 years old since it's original recording, maybe a little more, but one to pull out when you feel like hearing some raw black metal that's played in such a way that it'll truly move you in it's morbidity.  There are actually 2 drawbacks that are blatantly obvious here: the fact that it's not in English and the riff quality could've been a bit more creative.  Pick it up if you're looking for darkness visible.

Rate: 75%

Reviewed By Death8699 (secret_face_metal@yahoo.com). 

From the reichs of hell come forth now on this older and exceptionally raw release.  Quite melodic, yet filled with dismay and despair.  Much is to say of an album like this, I'd conclude an epic journal through the fires of hell.  It's amazing in temperament, lucid in musicianship, symphonic throughout and purely wicked in content.  Many different tempo changes, yet mostly that of a mysterious vibe.  It reaches its' peak in quite valid symphonic/melodic black metal.  Not many that I've heard out there reflecting this raw efficiency of a nocturne.

I really dug deep into trying to validate an album that really is probably the best, most atmospheric Dimmu album in existence.  Such a great offering with lucid tempos, original guitar melodies and overall a definite triumph hence a coin off the name of the release.  Not much a fan of the lyrical content, but the music is like none heard before from them in this raw arena of mass destruction.  The vocals are utmost yielding screams throughout and with it a guitar sound in so many ways just utterly original and fantastic.

From beginning to end, this album is feature is of a sure blast of hellfire in a nutshell.  If you get the extended release, there is a bonus track and the whole album is about an hour in length.  Definitely something to listen to when you can adhere to the atmosphere of the release.  The keyboards/synthesizers augment the scound of the guitar and eerie vocals yielding melodic black metal in it's utterly devastating demise.  There has been no other Dimmu to match this one in utmost originality.  The guitar riffs are just amazing and everything fits.

No real downsides on the album.  The songs aren't exceptionally fast, yet you hear the double bass drums firing away at times during the tremelo picking essence of guitar riffing.  Not a lot of blast beating here, I believe that the focus was on creating black metal that is to hear the best in the heart of wintertime.  Not feeble or weak in any sense, the music is ongoing in its' great apocalypic persevearance.  I can't believe what happened to this band with further releases.  It seems like they hit their peak here and then opted out of making follow-ups that are nowhere near topping this one.

I'd stress to YouTube "Mourning Palace" to get a taste of what this one has to possess.  A full album that you can play endlessly and not get sick of it's raw sound mixed with the instruments that leave the listener in awe of musical quality played out with purity in feel.  The setting is so dark and defies all of the odds, to me, this is their definite best release I've heard.  No mistaking that, I give this one it's highest, most deserving of praise rating galore.  If you want melodic/symphonic black metal played so willingly desolate and dark, 'Enthrone Darkness Triumphant' is where it's at.

Rate: 100%

Reviewed By Death8699 (secret_face_metal@yahoo.com).

The true kings of black metal reign fully once again because they refuse to give in and let go of the talent they wholeheartedly possess. They reign this genre and seem to have progressed with each succeeding release ever since their original formation back in 1990. Though they've had lineup changes, this didn't mean that they were going to abandon their roots.

Musically, this release is a bit better then 'Damned In Black.' The production is more audible so the instruments and vocals are much clearer sounding. There seems to be some riffs very similar to 'At The Heart Of Winter' as well. Not as catchy, but still a better effort than 'Damned In Black' because of the melodic riffs with some more brutal time signatures as especially displayed on the intro entitled "One By One."

There's a lot of blast beats by Horgh to assist the more intense tempos by Abbath. Some songs feature clean style guitar work though not taking up an entire song but just a smidgen amount of them. Also, there is an atmospheric intro on the track entitled 'Antarctica.' Fit the title perfectly! Abbath definitely progressed on the guitar ever since replacing Demonaz back in 1997. His leads are more technical on this album but aren't the greatest. I find the rhythms to be more catchy then anything else.

As I've noted sound wise this album succeeds 'Damned In Black' with a clearer production by Peter Tagtgren. Abbath's vocal abilities haven't changed really based on what I've heard from previous releases. However, there's more screams by him on here. The songwriting by Abbath progressed with more technical efforts as opposed to previous releases.

The lyrical content on here was done by Demonaz. His topics reflect grimness, winter, the north, battles and winterdemons. Ever since being replaced by Abbath because of tendinitis in his arm, he stuck with Immortal fulfilling the lyrical content. That occurred after 'Blizzard Beasts' was released. Abbath was on bass/vocals from 1990-1997. He took over on the guitar and Demonaz started writing the lyrics for each album beginning on 'At The Heart Of Winter.' There are absolutely no covers on this release. Just over 50 minutes in length here and 8 solid tracks!

Immortal disbanded after this album. The bonus DVD features them live at BB King's in New York via 2005. This album is one of Immortal's most brutal even though as previously stated there were clean bits as well as quite a few melodic riffs. There really wasn't any track that didn't fail to attract my attention towards. The whole album I was impressed with. These musicians once again reflected much seniority in their songwriting style.

Rate: 90%.

Reviewed By Death8699 (secret_face_metal@yahoo.com).

Wow, I don't think that it gets more evil than this! "Vobiscum Satanas" is an utter abomination to say the least. There's so much on these 8 tracks which are filled with lyrics that pretty much tackle Satanism entirely. This is black metal played in it's most extreme form. What else to say about this release of a pure holocaust! Featured here on this lineup is Emperor Magus Caligula on vocals/bass, Lord Ahriman on guitars, Typhos on guitars and Alzazmon on drums. They have gone through several lineup changes over the years but that hasn't stopped them from producing black metal to its mightiest extreme. It's a shame that this is only a little bit over 35 minutes in length.

The music itself features guitars playing at utterly spell bounding tempos most of the whole way through this release. Not too much variety there but that doesn't take away from the power the album exhibits. Also, the guitars on this release were tuned down to E-Flat which is the tuning they have always used since their first release "The Secret Of The Black Arts." The blast beating drums is featured on this entire release except for a few slower tempos but not that many. Also, some drums that contain fast double bass but it isn't prevalent throughout this whole release. The guitars contain tremolo picking almost through every track. It doesn't really change much here because I think their focus was to pound out some seriously evil sounds. They succeeded too by using minor chord progressions all throughout the album! This is about as dark as it gets. Since it was my first Dark Funeral release I'd have to say it was quite amazing.

This was a re-released version of this album which contains 4 bonus tracks of them playing these songs live. Vocal wise Emperor Magus Caligula exhibits some pretty extreme high end screaming which is what's featured almost entirely throughout this whole release. There are some tracks with him just bellowing some low end blasphemous lyrics. This is featured on the title track as well as a few other tracks as well. I can't say that I'm really into the lyrics but nevertheless Dark Funeral has really caught my ear. The overall production, mixing, and engineering is definitely spell binding. This is an earlier release too and it simply dominates. I couldn't get into the live tracks though I didn't really care for the sound quality. But I don't really like live tracks anyway. The fact that I got the re-released version is ok nevertheless.

For me, all of the tracks were well composed. Though I like "Enriched By Evil" and the title track the most. But like I said, there weren't any tracks on here that I disliked. This is a pure Satanic black metal release. The fact that they didn't use keyboards to make this more chilling was really awesome. It was the vocals, guitar and overall sound plus lyrics which achieved their success in making it captivating. The sound quality is good as well though I couldn't really get into the live versions of these songs. Not that they're bad I just can't get into any bands that have live tracks on their album. All 8 tracks on this are good. But like I said, I don't like live tracks to be totally honest.

Rate: 95%

Reviewed By Death8699 (secret_face_metal@yahoo.com).    

This quartet originated in 2002, but has had several side projects. The lineup consists of Thomas Andresen on vocals/bass, Thomas Aamodt on guitars/keyboards, Bjørn 'Tiger' Mathisen on guitars, and Lars Erik Duserud behind the set on drums. The band is a mixture under the genres of black/death/thrash metal. Oh my God, how horrible this release is! I've heard some bad bands for sure, but Sincera doesn't show any quality songwriting whatsoever.

The music is a feature of melodies and chords on the guitars, but there's nothing really interesting with them or innovative. Total dislike. The tremolo picking was evident also on this release and the studio version songs just suck almost as much as the live tracks. What's really annoying are the vocals. Thomas just doesn't spew out quality in this department. It's mostly high end screams that accompany the music. The riffs here are just so horribly constructed.

I haven't heard this bad of a debut in a while. There isn't any room for plenty of improvement musically. They need to stick to one genre, maybe black metal since the vocals make it sound like they're just a black metal act. But the guitars are more thrash distorted and slow paced. I can't hear why they would be also in the genre of death metal. There's nothing really on here that demonstrates them to be within that genre also.

Nothing excited me about this band. They're totally a waste. The live songs sounded just like noise. I could hardly bare to listen to the concert tracks. You could hardly hear anything at all except total disgust that's supposed to be metal?! I have nothing good to say about these live songs. I'm not sure why they included them into this debut. The studio songs were bad enough and the live tracks just made things worse. There wasn't music, just utter noise.

The production wasn't that bad since you could hear everything on the studio version songs. The vocals, guitars, bass, and drums you could hear pretty well. The mixing was good, but just this band really sucks. They have no talent whatsoever and I don't think that they have any promise to become a better band musically. A total waste of a release. I couldn't get into this band at all no matter how hard I tried with repeated spins. They just wasted my time.

If you want utter disgust to go into your metal collection, then buy this album. Otherwise, save your money and don't pick this up. It has nothing good or innovative about it. I haven't heard such a terrible debut in a long time. The live tracks were so terrible I had to skip through them in order to avoid becoming nauseated. No talent, no creativity, no promise, and no room for liking this album. I've heard some pretty bad albums in the past, but this one deserves to be among that rank.

This black metal band I feel doesn't really need an introduction since they've been dishing out metal for this genre as far back as their founding in 1984. The album is a true classic among the black metal community. Anyone who doubts this synopsis can pretty much stuff it because this release was so well put together that it deserves an honorary mention. I'm not a huge black metal fan, but this album has me hooked. It's one of those albums that you can listen to repeatedly and never get sick of because it's so original, fast, furious, evil, eerie and Satanic. That sums up Mayhem on here.

The music is composed of guitar frenzies featuring fast tremolo picking chords, slower eerie pieces, bass guitar parts that are dark and dreary and drums that keep up with the music. Pretty much all of the songs are very memorable and unique. Attila's vocals are so evil and possessed. Both guitarists Euronymous (RIP 1993) and Blackthorn dish out some great riffs that stick to the mind eternally. The guitar sound is so unique and creative. It's fast like I said before, but very well played out. The chords are mostly picked with fury and anger. No letup on that front.

Even Count Grishnackh's bass guitar was audible here. The guitars aren't continuously playing fast, but they do have plenty of furious guitar work during most of the lengthy songs. Amazing what they put together I mean 8 tracks that clocks in around 46 minutes in length. They're really focus was I think on making the guitar the primary focal point of the album. It sets the tone for the dark vocals and Hellhammer's drum outputs. Really good tracks to download would be "Freezing Moon", "Pagan Fears" and "From The Dark Past".

The mixing and production are entirely solid on every aspect. You can hear the guitar melodies, bass guitar working, vocals well mixed in to augment the music, and the drums were very audible. There's nothing that went wrong here, everything was mixed in unison. There are no negative aspects to this release. It's one of the best black metal albums of all time. I say this because it's based on fact, not opinion. If you're a black metal fan and don't own this release, YouTube the songs that I mentioned and you'll want to pick it up right away.

In summary, here's a Mayhem album that stands out from all of the rest of them. It's their best album no doubt. Intensity was a huge factor here. But not every track like I said is extremely fast or extremely slow. There was one segment of the bass that was slow and played by itself without the guitars or drums, but it didn't last very long. Hellhammer blasts away here with great drum outputs that fit the music entirely. Attila's vocals were amazingly unique and dreary. It was perfect to have him on here to well fit the music. Own this album now!

Marduk has been around enough to know that their genre is extreme black metal. When I say "extreme" I mean literally no letup during any of the songs. Legion slays on vocals, Evil dishes out amazingly fast guitar, Bogge blisters on bass and Fredrik Andersson blast beats on the drums galore. There aren't any songs on this album that are slow by any means. It's high intensity, riffs are tremolo picked so fast it's amazing. They've got to be on speed to play this fast and relentlessly empowering. There's no song on here that isn't filled with blast beating.

First of all, the songs are not only fast, but are memorable. That's one thing that stuck to me when I was listening to this release. All of the songs are worthy of praise. It's 30 minutes of hyper speed Satanic black metal. Some riffs on the guitar were a tad slow but then it's followed by more tremolo picking. It doesn't matter what song that you pick for this. All of them are worthy of praise. Just by intensity, awesome throat, shining guitar riffs, limited amount of solo guitar work, and drums that go well along with the music.

The music and vocals are the highlight to this. All of the songs I like. That is because of the intensity, the amazing amount of hard work on the unique guitar overtures, and drums backing up this amazing release. I love the guitar because the riffs have so much diversity in speed which is what makes this album stand out among the black metal loving community. The guitar goes well along with the vocals. They designed it good to have it made like that which is awesome. A song may open with a riff that has chords then the drums come in and the guitar goes insane.

Production/mixing was with perfection. All of the instruments and vocals blended in perfectly so that you can hear everything in unison. The vocals don't drown out the guitar or drums. All of the songs are only about 3-4 minutes in length. There's only 8 tracks on the album and it clocks in for only about 30 minutes in length. But these 30 minutes are black metal the way that it should be played which is fast and furious. There are little bomb intros to some of the songs then blast the guitar and drums come in and dominate.

It's hard to find any faults with this album. Everything seems to fit evenly with the band's performance. Top notch black metal that doesn't have much diversity, only speed. That's what Panzer Division Marduk is all about. Fast and furious metal with Legion's killer vocal outputs. If you want to hear some black metal frenzy then get Panzer Division Marduk. It doesn't fall short from any standpoints. I can't see why anyone would say anything negative about this release. There isn't much else but a frenzy of madness among these Satanic human beings. Fast, furious, gutsy and unrelenting in the 30 minutes that this album devours.

Follow up release from the album "Dawnbringer", this album reflects that of Satanic rock and roll but is considered to fit into the genre of black metal. The lineup consists of Tim on vocals, Brett on guitars, Kyle on guitars, Jeremy on bass and James on drums. I wouldn't consider this band to be within the black metal genre at all except for the vocals sounding a little bit like Legion from Devian/Marduk. There is much to be said about this band that I will orchestrate.

Musically, they have distorted tone guitars with way heavy blues influence to their sound. All of the songs reflect this and aren't very fast paced at all. They have a distinctive groove to them featuring rhythm guitars with a crunch tone to them and heavy rock influence. If there's something to say about this band, it would be that they're highly skilled in achieving their album title as well as a very unique style of black metal that's finely played out.

Every song contains guitars that aren't highly difficult to play if you're a guitarist. They feature palm muted riffs galore mixed with distinctive rhythms that are noteworthy and highly innovative. The lead guitar bits are highly technical and played out with vigor. They suit the rhythms quite well and the vocals are raspy with occasional change ups, but not many. Tempos of the guitars for the most part are like I've mentioned, slow especially on the instrumental track. There's a clean tone guitar mixed with lead bits.

Even the faster tracks are still not that fast like blast beating. The song entitled "Overthrone" is one to YouTube because it's more on the black metal end than the rest of the songs. This band doesn't play anything that's overtly heavy. The distortion on the guitars make them sound more thrash metal based. This is featured throughout the album. Some songs darker than others. Most of them dark though with a little kick to them.

I haven't heard their debut release so I cannot compare this one to their debut. Something new is here with this album that I have yet to hear which is black metal played with a rock and roll style of guitar rhythms. I'm still perplexed by this. Not many bands that I've heard play like this, but the lyrical contents are mindless. It's not difficult to sing about Satanism. What is difficult is to hear a band play rock and roll style of guitar work with these lyrical concepts.

The mixing/production sound was a little bit flat sounding especially on the drums. But the vocals, guitars, bass, and drums are still in there pretty solid and well mixed together to compliment the album. The production could've been better, but for an underground band, the "raw" sound encompassed the album well to make it into a decent release. I suppose that they made this album with that kind of sound to fit into the overall darker fix to them.

Something's happened here that never does happen with a black metal band and again that's to be that of one who plays guitars with a rock base to them. This album isn't overtly heavy, but highly original and unique. I suppose that you could say "Unholy Rock and Roll" really fits with the sound of this album. If you're into rock, you may even take a liking to this release. I thought that it was highly unique and noteworthy. They really did a good job with achieving their goal of sounding highly original. Pick this up!

A melodic black metal band like Naglfar deserves recognition for this one heck of a fine album. Follow up from "Pariah", this one is better produced and each vocal/instrument output is well heard. An exoneration of what is to be amongst the top of their game in this scarce genre of Metal. Rarely do you hear a band with a combination of melodic riffs combined with blast beating and scorching riff overtures that belt into your brain.

The music features melodies that are quite memorable and admirable. The combination of melodic riffs amongst bass lines that ebb thoroughly with remarkable creativity and atmosphere that's dark and dismal. Songs open up with either blast beating belting deep into the cranium. Tempo changes are incredible. Such intensity is featured here and the vocals compliment the devastating riffs.

Each track is memorable featuring tremolo picked guitar riffs that are blazingly fast. But it isn't featured on this whole album, just for the most of it. Best to listen to the songs with headphones so that you don't miss out on any of the melodic guitar mixed with a commanding vocals. Everything seems to flow unabashedly and most of the fast parts are during the vocal lines. 

As I said before, this album was well mixed which each instrument flowing well into the core of this evil and solemn concoction of devastating melodic black metal. This is what was missing on their previous release "Pariah", which was also good, but it was difficult to hear the riffs outright. "Harvest" doesn't lack that component which makes it such a gem of a release.

The lyrical department features bits on suicide, death, dying, and so forth. It meshes well with the atmosphere of the album. Dismal topics, but what do you expect from these melodic black metal mongrols? Vocals throughout the album spew forth these hateful lyrics and give it an aura of eerie sounding touch of evil. You can actually understand the vocals without looking at a sheet of their lyrics. Not on every song, but for a majority of them.

If you're looking for something that's in the vein of extreme melodic black metal, then "Harvest" delivers. The music, the vocals, the drum lines are all in synchrony with riffs that are dark and dismal. So many features of this album contain riff structures that are admirable, vocals that are dark/depressing, drum bits with furious beating and bashing high intensity. Pick this one up because it does the Metal community great justice!

This unknown trio should remain an unknown one because their music is totally putrid. I have nothing good to say about this album except that it's black metal that's played in a distasteful style. There's many tempo changes featuring leads, clean tone guitars, and solos that totally are played without any talent that I can immerse from this description. The vocals really got to me as well. Just screaming that is some that can get onto one's nerves. Totally annoying.

The music features guitars that are melodic with changes in tempos, but nothing really striking or memorable. The songs are lengthy music that don't deserve praise at all. The sound quality just was lacking totally. There are some independent releases that are well mixed together, but this one lacks it entirely. None of the instruments or vocals are well mixed in unison. The leads totally lack innovation and are not played out well whatsoever.

There are riffs that feature bar chords and tremolo picked ones as well. The clean guitars are decently played out, but when they're mixed with the distorted overtures it makes the sound just annoying. If they incorporated the clean guitars alone, it would've served them much better off. The vocals are clean during these bits as well which did fit properly. What I hear during this release is black metal that's played half assed. The worst part of it are the tremolo picked guitar frenzies with the screaming vocals.

The production sound is flat and not mixed well together at all. First of all, you can't hear the bass guitar well. The leads don't mesh well with the rhythms and are shrieking just like noise. The drums had a decent hold on the release, but it would've been much better if the band could've had everything mixed together in unison. I don't think that they were quality in regards to the mixing whatsoever. Hopefully in time they'll get on a major record label and put out some quality black metal.

My recommendation is this: don't buy this album. It falls short in so many respects as I've previously mentioned. Annoying vocals, bad production, guitar that was played in a mediocre fashion and black metal altogether in a deafening blur. There's no songs on here that I liked and was fortunate enough to hear this album which was sent to me. It just does no justice to the black metal community and if the band produces a follow up, they really need to clean up their act.