Various Artists
Northern Heritage Box Set
[Northern Heritage]
This is for the collectors exclusively, as it was limited to 100 copies, but it's fair enough to comment on it. Five 7" (four of them originally limited to 200 copies, the other unreleased) packaged within a large black box with a sticker on it, and then hand-numbered. BRILLIANT idea!
Nightside 'Ad Noctum': Three tracks of modern sounding, and hyperspeed black metal. Powerful, nordic sounding riffs with a distant sounding production, and realistically not unlike a more underground Dark Funeral. Fans of the modern stuff will lap this up...
Pest: 'Belial's Possessed Wolves': Soothing keyboard leads into some guitars and vocals. First thing that came to mind was 'boy, sounds like I'm listening to a black metal 7" from the early 90s'. Second thing that was made clear was: 'these fellows sound like old Tiamat, but with some modern black metal feel'. Treblinka/old Tiamat fans will appreciate the simplicity of this.
Clandestine Blaze: 'On the Mission': Synagogue on fire as a cover photo, 'Eliminate Zionist Cancer', 'Destroy Israel' quoted - I like these fellows! Fairly typical current Finnish black metal (see: Horna/Musta Surma/Warloghe/Helwetti), but with a more solid production. Stuff like this is always inspiring when done right (and yes, they do it right). Hypnotic and violent, although 'Tearing Down Jerusalem' is a tad too 'Under a Funeral Moon' inspired.
Bloodhammer: 'Monastary of Thousand Blackened Lusts': Great ancient black/death lyrics: 'Sky will be bloodred...BLOODRED!!! AAAEEYUYOOORRRRR!!!!' (yes, that's actually printed), and some chaotic thrashing blackness to back them up. Probably Hellhammer inspired, but there's lots of Venom-ish guitar wanking (re: 'Absolute Desecration'), minus the vocals that sound not unlike every other Finnish BM band (high pitched that is).
V/A : Nightside rip off Gorgoroth with 'The Black Legion of Satan' before moving into some more typical blasting, Bloodhammer pull off more of the same, Clandestine Blaze still sound like Darkthrone, and Pest's "Satanic Black Mass" is a good deal more primitive.
An excellent idea anyway, and some solid metal too. This is bound to become one of the bigger collector's items in terms of black metal, mark my words...
© 2000 brand
Nightside 'Ad Noctum': Three tracks of modern sounding, and hyperspeed black metal. Powerful, nordic sounding riffs with a distant sounding production, and realistically not unlike a more underground Dark Funeral. Fans of the modern stuff will lap this up...
Pest: 'Belial's Possessed Wolves': Soothing keyboard leads into some guitars and vocals. First thing that came to mind was 'boy, sounds like I'm listening to a black metal 7" from the early 90s'. Second thing that was made clear was: 'these fellows sound like old Tiamat, but with some modern black metal feel'. Treblinka/old Tiamat fans will appreciate the simplicity of this.
Clandestine Blaze: 'On the Mission': Synagogue on fire as a cover photo, 'Eliminate Zionist Cancer', 'Destroy Israel' quoted - I like these fellows! Fairly typical current Finnish black metal (see: Horna/Musta Surma/Warloghe/Helwetti), but with a more solid production. Stuff like this is always inspiring when done right (and yes, they do it right). Hypnotic and violent, although 'Tearing Down Jerusalem' is a tad too 'Under a Funeral Moon' inspired.
Bloodhammer: 'Monastary of Thousand Blackened Lusts': Great ancient black/death lyrics: 'Sky will be bloodred...BLOODRED!!! AAAEEYUYOOORRRRR!!!!' (yes, that's actually printed), and some chaotic thrashing blackness to back them up. Probably Hellhammer inspired, but there's lots of Venom-ish guitar wanking (re: 'Absolute Desecration'), minus the vocals that sound not unlike every other Finnish BM band (high pitched that is).
V/A : Nightside rip off Gorgoroth with 'The Black Legion of Satan' before moving into some more typical blasting, Bloodhammer pull off more of the same, Clandestine Blaze still sound like Darkthrone, and Pest's "Satanic Black Mass" is a good deal more primitive.
An excellent idea anyway, and some solid metal too. This is bound to become one of the bigger collector's items in terms of black metal, mark my words...
© 2000 brand