Judas Iscariot
The Cold Earth Slept Below
[Moribund]
This is the first album of Judas Iscariot, one of the most noted black metal
acts from USA ever. There are also some who dismiss this one-man-band as a
simple Darkthrone clone.
”The Cold Earth…” does not sound excessively much like Darkthrone. It’s grim and cold black metal the way black metal used to sound, but the feel of this album has a certain sharp edge of originality. The style between different tracks ranges from the simple and grim ”Damned Below Judas” with it’s trademark Transylvanian Hunger riffs to Blasphemy-grindish ”Hatred” and the artistically wicked and twisted main riff of the title track. Akhenaten is no technical drummer and often his rhythms sound the same regardless of the pace he is keeping, but that can also be praised as consistency and does not spoil this album.
Akhenaten’s sense of poetic expression and philosophy (writing a song called ”Nietzsche” has a pretentious feel to it however) transform this from a simple manifestation of youth angst to a relevant black metal album. I wouldn’t say important, but it definitely has it’s place.
The production is garage-like, primitive, but it’s quite sharp and the elements are well audible, comparable to the first album by Bathory except not as primitive. The lyrics are not printed but parts of them may be with some effort distinguishable from the vocals which Akhenaten gnarls at a nearly monotonical pace, not without reason, however.
The steadiness and grayness of tone and tempo is characteristic to this, but rather than sounding un-moving like Urgehal did to me, this is inspired. The music has undercurrents, it has something that one can read between the lines of the lyrics and hear between the notes.
© 1999 black hate
”The Cold Earth…” does not sound excessively much like Darkthrone. It’s grim and cold black metal the way black metal used to sound, but the feel of this album has a certain sharp edge of originality. The style between different tracks ranges from the simple and grim ”Damned Below Judas” with it’s trademark Transylvanian Hunger riffs to Blasphemy-grindish ”Hatred” and the artistically wicked and twisted main riff of the title track. Akhenaten is no technical drummer and often his rhythms sound the same regardless of the pace he is keeping, but that can also be praised as consistency and does not spoil this album.
Akhenaten’s sense of poetic expression and philosophy (writing a song called ”Nietzsche” has a pretentious feel to it however) transform this from a simple manifestation of youth angst to a relevant black metal album. I wouldn’t say important, but it definitely has it’s place.
The production is garage-like, primitive, but it’s quite sharp and the elements are well audible, comparable to the first album by Bathory except not as primitive. The lyrics are not printed but parts of them may be with some effort distinguishable from the vocals which Akhenaten gnarls at a nearly monotonical pace, not without reason, however.
The steadiness and grayness of tone and tempo is characteristic to this, but rather than sounding un-moving like Urgehal did to me, this is inspired. The music has undercurrents, it has something that one can read between the lines of the lyrics and hear between the notes.
© 1999 black hate