Krieg
Rise Of The Imperial Hordes
[Blood Fire Death]
Whoa. I am speechless. Long had I heard of these underground favourites, and it
was with a feverish fervour that I snapped up a copy from a local distro,
especially after I heard the many ‘updated Profanatica’ comparisons.
Truthfully, the comparison does hold some truth to a certain extent, possessing the trademark Profanatica/Havohej coined grinding guitar sound, though with the added dimension of some Beherit (Drawing Down The Moon, mostly) and the earliest Incantation record (which is in most part an updated Profanatica). It’s really hard to go wrong with such a choice of loud n’ proud influences, and this dense layer of harsh, merciless black-grind is enough to warrant a purchase from anyone who considers themselves an underground enthusiast.
Krieg’s staunch intent in recreating the misanthropic noise of yore serves them an advantage of strange duality. While its undeniable that Beherit and Profanatica have left their indelible marks on the underground, no-one has actually stepped up to the mantle to reclaim the black/grind/noise throne and sit beside Profanatica’s present incarnation, Demoncy as the lieges of this most hateful of subgenres. Krieg have stepped up to the challenge, and in the process created an album that is breathtakingly refreshing in today’s image-obsessed, pseudo-evil black metal environment, reinvigorating a corpse that has been stagnant for way too long ( of course, we could consider Russia’s Carnage, the one man covert operation on Hungry AK-47).
I fail to understand why people have so misleadingly labeled this (especially on blackmetal.com, where obviously a bunch of crack-addled reviewers reside) as ‘Nordic’. I don’t find anything remotely Nordic whatsoever in the atmospheres that this disc creates, only a consummate exercise in pure hatred, cracked hate vocal spews and the darkest black metal to peer out of the American underground since the days of Profanatica and VON themselves. One word of caution though, this isn’t the tightest disc available in the world of extreme metal, but tightness and coherence is always secondary to feeling, passion and hatred. Krieg are destined to be entered into the pantheon of American black metal Olympus, and you are therefore under command to pick this up soonest.
[a fucking 10!]
© 2000 equimanthorn
Truthfully, the comparison does hold some truth to a certain extent, possessing the trademark Profanatica/Havohej coined grinding guitar sound, though with the added dimension of some Beherit (Drawing Down The Moon, mostly) and the earliest Incantation record (which is in most part an updated Profanatica). It’s really hard to go wrong with such a choice of loud n’ proud influences, and this dense layer of harsh, merciless black-grind is enough to warrant a purchase from anyone who considers themselves an underground enthusiast.
Krieg’s staunch intent in recreating the misanthropic noise of yore serves them an advantage of strange duality. While its undeniable that Beherit and Profanatica have left their indelible marks on the underground, no-one has actually stepped up to the mantle to reclaim the black/grind/noise throne and sit beside Profanatica’s present incarnation, Demoncy as the lieges of this most hateful of subgenres. Krieg have stepped up to the challenge, and in the process created an album that is breathtakingly refreshing in today’s image-obsessed, pseudo-evil black metal environment, reinvigorating a corpse that has been stagnant for way too long ( of course, we could consider Russia’s Carnage, the one man covert operation on Hungry AK-47).
I fail to understand why people have so misleadingly labeled this (especially on blackmetal.com, where obviously a bunch of crack-addled reviewers reside) as ‘Nordic’. I don’t find anything remotely Nordic whatsoever in the atmospheres that this disc creates, only a consummate exercise in pure hatred, cracked hate vocal spews and the darkest black metal to peer out of the American underground since the days of Profanatica and VON themselves. One word of caution though, this isn’t the tightest disc available in the world of extreme metal, but tightness and coherence is always secondary to feeling, passion and hatred. Krieg are destined to be entered into the pantheon of American black metal Olympus, and you are therefore under command to pick this up soonest.
[a fucking 10!]
© 2000 equimanthorn