This is my first exposure to Ildjarn, and I must say that I don't understand why everyone is freaking out so bad about how raw he is. I have heard much rawer and noisier music, and nothing on this disc can even compare in ferocity and intensity to people such as Merzbow, Taint or Masonna. Though I must say, that it is pretty raw as far as metal goes, with a slight punk feel aligning it a bit perhaps with Absurd.

The only problem here is the length... if Ildjarn had only one 15 minute record out, I would probably consider it brilliant and suggest it as mandatory listening in elementary schools. But, with, like, 5 CDs out and all of them pretty long, it just gets tedious... This thing is about 40+ minutes too long at the very least. But spending 15 minutes listening to random tracks is a brilliant, brutal experience.

© 1999 the barrow man