Various Artists
Waging the War (A Tribute to the Olden Ways)
[Sepulchral]
"Waging the War is intended as a tribute to the early Black Metal scene whose spirit and lifestyle has long been lost to trends and money. Anyone listening to it should keep this in mind since this is not a the place you will find cute and fashionable Black Metal...
Our gratitude goes to the bands and labels who have made this compilation what it is. A loud hail to you, long live the true cult!"
So says the CD insert of this 2001 compilation put out by Quebec's Sepulchral Productions (owned and operated by members of Frozen Shadows). What we have here is a 17 band/track CD that concentrates on both established bands and new and unsigned acts (lots of Quebec bands, for those curious about this interesting scene). It is a mix of exclusive and available tracks.
Since this CD somewhat diverse, here's a track by track break down:
AntaeuS "Inner War" - This is the first half of their Rekordin 2000-1 'release'. It serves as an excellent opener for the comp, with it's 'evil' intro. Good blasphemic and ugly black metal from France.
Negura Bunget "Immortality's Elegy The Vampirism" - From their 'Zirnindusa' CD, this track is pretty quintesential Negura Bunget. I never thought their combination of raw primitive black metal with an overbearing synth atmosphere worked, so I can't really say anything good about this.
Horna "Synkän Muiston Äärellä" - This track is off of their split 7" with Musta Surma. These Finnish lads give us a pretty standard song that is made up of dueling intervals of blast-beats and mid-paced parts. Nothing too exciting here.
Skjul "The Wanderer" - Burzum-esque raw black metal from Quebec... The mix/production is not the greatest (can't hear some instruments), but overall this is a good song. This band should work on tuning their sound a bit more before releasing a demo.
Ragnarok "Certain Death" - From their 3rd album "Diabolical Age", fast and cleanly raw (?). You know them anyway...
Frozen Shadows "Of Pain and Insufferable Torment" - From their debut album, a good aggressive song with atmosphere just like the rest of their album. It's somewhat disappointing when the perpetrators of a comp don't record an exclusive song for it, but you should pick up their album anyway.
Lord Belial "Come to the Sabbath" - Extremely out-of-place, this song sticks out like a sore thumb. A cover of the King's/Merciful Fate's classic song. I never liked the King (heresy?) or Lord Belial, so this track loses in my book.
Esker "Du Nord" - Another young act from Quebec, Esker is a side-project of the members of Veneficium. This song is hands down the most interesting on this comp; pretty much a fast instrumental (save for a few vocal screeches). Nordic sounding, but fresh, Esker is one of the better Quebec bands.
Garwall "Par de la Bien et le Mal" - This song is off of somesort of sampler. Garwall reminds my of Moonblood for some reason, but I'm sure I'm way off. A good track.
Thy Primordial "The Heresy of an Age of Reason" - From their upcoming album, this song is typical fast atmospheric black metal from Sweden (!). A little boring, but not horrible.
NostraDrama "L'hymne Nocturne" - This band plays what they call 'Drama metal' which judging from this track is black metal mixed in with epic medieval sounding riffing. Pretty good, although a little weird. From Quebec...
Celestia "Darkness Enfolds the Sky" - This is a really upbeat and exciting track, melodic yet not annoying.
The Burning "Darkness Soon Will Be" - A recording of one of their rehersals; The Burning play fast raw and primitive, somewhat amateur sounding. They are also from Quebec.
Veneficium "The Awakening" - A heavily Nordic sounding band from Quebec, this song lives up to their reputation. A good track, but again pretty typical. Their side-project Esker looks more promising.
Azaghal "Immisvitta" - From their split with Muskan Kuun Lapset, this is Azaghal at their weirdest. Raw ugly black metal with abrupt rock-influenced breaks and dueling vocals; interesting and well worth the listen.
Demon Realm "Eternities Unbound Forevermore" - One would think that since Denmark is pretty much one-third of Scandanavia there would be hordes of Danish black metal bands. This is not the case however, and Demon Realm stand out. This is pretty a-typical stuff, chaotic and noisey, and in no way 'cute'. Amateur sounding but original.
Winter Of The Black Skies "Rider of the Night" - I'm not sure what this is suppose to be; it sounds like it was thrown together rather quickly. Very amateur sounding (and NOT in that good way...), this track is fucking hilarious. The vocalist sounds like he's singing through a wall of phlegm at the back of his throat. And if that doesn't make you piss your pants in laughter, the 'evil' sounding clean chanting will. This song is pure comic relief in a dominantly grim CD; pure shit played by trendy kids. I'm not sure how this made it onto the CD.
Overall, this is not a bad comp. If you own most of the recordings listed above already, you still might want to pick this up; it serves as good insight into the emerging scene in Quebec.
It can be ordered directly from Sepulchral Productions: frozen@total.net
© 2001 nivende
Our gratitude goes to the bands and labels who have made this compilation what it is. A loud hail to you, long live the true cult!"
So says the CD insert of this 2001 compilation put out by Quebec's Sepulchral Productions (owned and operated by members of Frozen Shadows). What we have here is a 17 band/track CD that concentrates on both established bands and new and unsigned acts (lots of Quebec bands, for those curious about this interesting scene). It is a mix of exclusive and available tracks.
Since this CD somewhat diverse, here's a track by track break down:
AntaeuS "Inner War" - This is the first half of their Rekordin 2000-1 'release'. It serves as an excellent opener for the comp, with it's 'evil' intro. Good blasphemic and ugly black metal from France.
Negura Bunget "Immortality's Elegy The Vampirism" - From their 'Zirnindusa' CD, this track is pretty quintesential Negura Bunget. I never thought their combination of raw primitive black metal with an overbearing synth atmosphere worked, so I can't really say anything good about this.
Horna "Synkän Muiston Äärellä" - This track is off of their split 7" with Musta Surma. These Finnish lads give us a pretty standard song that is made up of dueling intervals of blast-beats and mid-paced parts. Nothing too exciting here.
Skjul "The Wanderer" - Burzum-esque raw black metal from Quebec... The mix/production is not the greatest (can't hear some instruments), but overall this is a good song. This band should work on tuning their sound a bit more before releasing a demo.
Ragnarok "Certain Death" - From their 3rd album "Diabolical Age", fast and cleanly raw (?). You know them anyway...
Frozen Shadows "Of Pain and Insufferable Torment" - From their debut album, a good aggressive song with atmosphere just like the rest of their album. It's somewhat disappointing when the perpetrators of a comp don't record an exclusive song for it, but you should pick up their album anyway.
Lord Belial "Come to the Sabbath" - Extremely out-of-place, this song sticks out like a sore thumb. A cover of the King's/Merciful Fate's classic song. I never liked the King (heresy?) or Lord Belial, so this track loses in my book.
Esker "Du Nord" - Another young act from Quebec, Esker is a side-project of the members of Veneficium. This song is hands down the most interesting on this comp; pretty much a fast instrumental (save for a few vocal screeches). Nordic sounding, but fresh, Esker is one of the better Quebec bands.
Garwall "Par de la Bien et le Mal" - This song is off of somesort of sampler. Garwall reminds my of Moonblood for some reason, but I'm sure I'm way off. A good track.
Thy Primordial "The Heresy of an Age of Reason" - From their upcoming album, this song is typical fast atmospheric black metal from Sweden (!). A little boring, but not horrible.
NostraDrama "L'hymne Nocturne" - This band plays what they call 'Drama metal' which judging from this track is black metal mixed in with epic medieval sounding riffing. Pretty good, although a little weird. From Quebec...
Celestia "Darkness Enfolds the Sky" - This is a really upbeat and exciting track, melodic yet not annoying.
The Burning "Darkness Soon Will Be" - A recording of one of their rehersals; The Burning play fast raw and primitive, somewhat amateur sounding. They are also from Quebec.
Veneficium "The Awakening" - A heavily Nordic sounding band from Quebec, this song lives up to their reputation. A good track, but again pretty typical. Their side-project Esker looks more promising.
Azaghal "Immisvitta" - From their split with Muskan Kuun Lapset, this is Azaghal at their weirdest. Raw ugly black metal with abrupt rock-influenced breaks and dueling vocals; interesting and well worth the listen.
Demon Realm "Eternities Unbound Forevermore" - One would think that since Denmark is pretty much one-third of Scandanavia there would be hordes of Danish black metal bands. This is not the case however, and Demon Realm stand out. This is pretty a-typical stuff, chaotic and noisey, and in no way 'cute'. Amateur sounding but original.
Winter Of The Black Skies "Rider of the Night" - I'm not sure what this is suppose to be; it sounds like it was thrown together rather quickly. Very amateur sounding (and NOT in that good way...), this track is fucking hilarious. The vocalist sounds like he's singing through a wall of phlegm at the back of his throat. And if that doesn't make you piss your pants in laughter, the 'evil' sounding clean chanting will. This song is pure comic relief in a dominantly grim CD; pure shit played by trendy kids. I'm not sure how this made it onto the CD.
Overall, this is not a bad comp. If you own most of the recordings listed above already, you still might want to pick this up; it serves as good insight into the emerging scene in Quebec.
It can be ordered directly from Sepulchral Productions: frozen@total.net
© 2001 nivende