The long awaited Drakkar compilation was roughly a year delayed, but the question is was it worth the wait, I must say I am not sure what to answer to that question as I do think it's a good compilation, but below my expectations. It is the first compilation from the highly cult label Drakkar who has put out many brilliant albums, one would expect a compilation that was supposedly only exclusive tracks to be fucking brilliant, but alas it didn't quite deliver that much as there are at least two of the tracks that are not exclusively for this compilation, and I have been told a third also isn't exclusive, but i do not know this for sure. Other then that some of the tracks didn't quite live up to Drakkar standard I think, there are some bands that just have no business being on this compilation I think. If one were to breakdown and review all the tracks seperate it would go something like this: Anatomy starts off the CD quite nicely with their track "The Witches Of Dathomir", which I have been told is not actually an exclusive for this compilation but I do not know for certain, they play a form of deathy black metal, quite primitive raw hateful and angry, so it has all the workings of an excellent track, and it is most certainly amongst the finest on this compilation, I've never come across them before so I don't really know much about them other than they are Australian. Celestia is the second up and it's basically in the usuall Celestia vein, which means black metal that has a very strange rockish edge to it that is quite hard to explain, but however odd they might sound they are still quite black metal, and they do their thing well. The third track is where we first run into some trouble, as we have Count Nosferatu, who I have not actually heard before, but having heard them called kommando black metal I was expecting some quite furious angry black metal, but that was far from what I got, this was rather something that is somewhat in the vein of newer Samael (Passage era mostly), mixed with some Limbonic Art however in a much rawer basic form and with some very thrashy elements, basically I think they are quite bad, but perhaps it's only this track? I sure do hope so. The Unpure horde strikes as the fourth, and they are excellent as always, however this track is taken from their "Promo 98" tape which I have already so nothing new for me here, but to those that do not know Unpure they are fucking excellent old school black metal, without the excessive use of harmonies and melodies that you often find in Swedish bands, they are excellent and amongst the absolute best on this CD. And then the Impiety horde strikes, who recently for mysterious reasons signed to Osmose of all labels but that is another story, "Sodomythical Frostgoats" is fucking blazing aggressive razorsharp black metal, in the usuall skullfucking Impiety vein, and you can't quite go wrong with that now can you? Sabbat the quite cult Japanese band strikes next, with a quite old track from 93 in a live recording from 96 ,and they are old school as hell delivering some excellent black metal of the very thrashy sort, and what is their to say? Sabbat are cult. The much praised in recent times Mütiilation is next in front of the firing squad, they deliver a pretty decent track I must admit I have not heard much more than a few tracks of Mütiilation, but they were basically in the same style as this quite typical second wave minimalistic black metal, with the pretty typical nordic like sound and feel, they do it quite well but there are so many bands that do pretty much the same, and while Mütiilation definatly are amongst the better of them, it does not really spark my interest as much as the more aggressive type of black metal does, and also the drum machine on this does bring it down a bit, but I guess Mütiilation have a cult status as well and this track will be worshipped. Next up is a track I will not comment on, as it's Demon Realm which I am the vocalist for and thus can't quite be objective, as I naturally think we are good, heheheh. Nebular Mystic is the 9th band and they are not really so untypical norwegian black metal sounding, I think they do their thing well enough, but they aren't extremely interesting, it's basically a decent track but from Drakkar, one would expect better than just decent. Temple Of Baal is next in line, crude evil satanic metal as they say themselves, which is a pretty fitting description really, but alas also somewhat generic and for a period comes close to ripping off Celtic Frost (but one might ask if you can go wrong with that heheh), basically they do a good track but are not quite up to the standards I for one would expect from Drakkar, as previously mentioned, it's not to speak ill of Temple Of Baal, as I think their track is good but not great. Garwall strikes us with the other track which isn't an exclusive, as it is to be featured on the also quite long delayed 4way split 7" with Garwall, F.R.O.S.T., Axis Of Advance and Demon Realm, so I have heard the track before but I will suspect that not many others have yet, it's a good song, a bit on the melodic side with a very thin guitar sound that is pretty razorsharp, one might come to think of all these Marduk, Dark Funeral etc. bands for a comparison to Garwall but yet not, as Garwall isn't as mindlessly boring and is far more energetic than those, but superficially somewhat in the same direction. Magane, what to say about this? A Japanese band I have never heard of before, and I must say I couldn't really care if I do hear of them again, they are rather of the gothic black metal type, and I must be wondering what the hell they are doing on a Drakkar compilation, I suspect that they might be trying to follow in Sigh's footsteps which might be the explanation for these quite non black metal elements, which doesn't really work to well, hell at one point in the song you could almost mistake them for some old Cradle Of Filth song, I do hear a few interesting ideas behind the not so good surface, and there are maybe two or three parts of the song that actually sounds good, but i don't know, to me the whole can't be saved by the few good parts, and the song fails miserably, I certainly hope they have made other more interesting things. Cursed sounds like a very generic death/black band from the early nineties, while it can somewhat spark a bit of nostalgia, I must say it's not quite interesting in the long run. Grimlord pops up as we approch the end, it's some rather heavy metalish black metal, perhaps something along the lines of what Grand Belial's Key does, but far from the class of GBK, Grimlord do however have it's own charm, it's not's the most awe inspiring track, but it's a solid offering that can be considered worthy of this compilation. Nebiros closes this compilation with a peice of very dark and hateful but yet strangely eerie and atmospheric sounding black metal, looking beyond the obvious weak point of the less than perfectly programmed drum computer, this track is quite good with it's very effective use of keyboards (something quite rare in black metal),it becomes quite hypnotic at times and then pops over in some raw and basic dirty as hell black metal, I do occasionally detect some similarities with their fellow French band Thy Lord, this track is definatly a spirited well composed dark peice black metal, which leaves me interested in this band. Overall this is certainly not a bad compilation, as it has many good tracks, also some truely great tracks, and for a compilation very few bad tracks. Had the Drakkar banner not been on this, I might not have been so harsh on it, but from them I do expect great things, and well good is not really satisfactory. Nevertheless it was a good effort on behalf of Drakkar, and I just hope that they will make it brilliant all around next time, if there is one.

© 2001 sharund