If you crossed Funeral Mist’s ugliness with Dissection’s virtuosity, Watain would be the end result. “Rabid Death’s Curse” is an exercise in mean-spirited melodies; it is raw and aggressive, but it still retains the more classic Swedish metal elements within the riff structures and thus prevents the band from drifting into Darkthrone tribute territory. One of the more interesting things about this album is that it is free of frills and treads on quite a bit of Black Metal common ground, yet it still manages to stand out and even soar at times. Most of the songs are relatively midpaced with well-placed bursts of speed reminiscent of the more recent output from Carpathian Forest. I recommend Watain to anyone looking for a band that still produces unpretentious and convincingly hateful music. This is a solid album in the face of compromise and abandonment within the Black Metal movement, and for that it deserves recognition.

© 2000 w.s. diabolus