Krieg - The Black House
Review: Anytime a thought process loses its integrity, and begins to wrap itself around ideas incidental to the direction of its expression, it is lost and in the same state as black metal anno 2004: most of it has become a hash of rock riffs, hardcore riffs, and heavy metal with black metal stylings, crushing all that was vital to the genre as well as its reasons for not being that kind of crowd-pleaser.
On "The Black House," Krieg skirts dangerous ground by approximating its own version of that style; while the Krieg take is more skilled than that of almost any other practicioner, it is somewhat pointless to see this band bend its independent will to the needs of the crowd. Many of the riffs here are from classic Darkthrone lexicon hybridized with the American tendency toward melodic intervals and syncopated concluding fills; some parts, including the introduction, show a nearly technical death metal level of involvement with offbeat-originated dissonant riffs.
All of the technique that made blackmetal distinctive here, including Graveland-style two note diminished harmonies, but for what? Like black metal after 1994, this release is not badly nor is it badly done, but it has missed the spirit of its genre and in the view of this reviewer is thus a prison for the talents of its creators.