This album is so vile sounding that even now (14 years after it's original release), it can still make most "modern" black metal completely pale in comparison...*THIS* is the album that laid out the blue print for "modern" raw black metal. Once you hear this, you'll instantly recognize it as the album that Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum and all the others have been trying to release ever since (especially Darkthrone - just thrown on "A Blaze In The Northern Sky" right after playing "The Return......" and you'll see what I mean). Production is abysmal, with every instrument bleeding into one another and forming one huge bass heavy wave of sonic Armageddon just waiting to annihilate you and every other living thing that gets in the way. Words just can't express how DARK and EVIL this album really is - if there was ever going to be a soundtrack for the apocalypse, you can bet this would be it. Gone is the Venom influence from the 1st album (except for perhaps on the track "Bestial Lust (Bitch)", and in it's place is the very epitome of true evil (it doesn't matter if Quorthon was or was not serious about all this when he recorded "The Return......", for what he gave birth to here is far greater than his will or intentions alone). Everything here, from the fuzzy chainsaw guitars to the thundering bass, from the "pounding your skull into a million fragments" drums to the hoarse vocals, all of it fits perfectly in place - nothing makes a move without the whole of it following (it's a fucking warmachine of an album - the audio equivalent of all the legions of hell channeled into one tank bulldozing it's way over your head) - THIS IS BLACK FUCKING METAL. There's really no point in me going on any further with this review - if you already own "The Return......", then you know exactly what I'm talking about...and if you *don't* already own this, you aren't worth piss - correct the situation immediately : get off your subhuman ass and buy this NOW - there is no excuse for not owning this, *none* at all...

© 1999 chorazaim