I bought this in blind trust, since its from 1995 AND from Napalm records, which implies its from the Austrian scene which is now somewhat less active but was GODLY a few years ago. At the first listen I was afraid that the mishmash of riffs, different vocal styles and stuff like violins would eventually turn out to be yet another "product" of a metal band trying to be "open-minded" but I guess I was wrong! This album is very... busy: the songs are crammed full of different rhythms, riffs and styles. In no way conventional rock structures are being used, except perhaps in "Latin Dreams In Turpentine" which turns out to be "blues as fuck", with the difference that Korova uses metal guitars. This is rather weird and unsettling, and while I usually dislike blues heartily, I found the unsettling feeling this gave me rather interesting. This whole album is... unsettling in a sort of way, meaning that it requires attention and thought. After an intro of screaming, sword-clattering and a burning world, "After The Fruits Of Ephemeral Pulchritude" begins, full of dissonant lead guitars and weird bass loops, setting the tone for the rest of the album. It is very much a metal album, using narrative song structures (quite good song writing actually, the riffs flow together to form a coherent whole) to which the drums provide a solid and mostly supporting foundation. Sometimes the music seems to work on the drummers nerves and we are in the midst of nauseous guitar riffs led by a jazzy, almost staggering drum line. I would definitely call this black metal, but there's more to it; I love the bass loops this band uses, wandering through the music like some soul looking for something...sometimes finding the guitars and sometimes moving on its own. The band sometimes use a violin and a female vocalist, fortunately not for the sake of "something different" but as an element of the music itself. The listener is violently thrown from one emotion into the other... Play it loud, very loud... Overall the structured chaos and violent dark movements the harsh screams lead the music into different stages. I say pick this up if you can get it: most bands trying to be "different" usually end up in pointless incoherence with too much playing of instruments and too little ideas; this is not the case with this album. Perhaps because they spent three years writing it? It surely is a presentation. Or, to quote Beavis and Butt-head: "this kicks ass".

© 1999 dwaallicht