If you're like me & often buy stuff just for the album cover art work, this is one for your gallery. Now, whether or not you'd consider the music within also a work of art is, debatably, a whole other story. Most of you (who care about extreme metal) know by now what to expect from the Norwegian black metal scene. All aspects of these songs are over the top-over the edge & down into the pit of black pitchforks (if ya know what I mean). The emphasis here is speed. Blastbeats & guitars that keep up with those beats. And yet, to stave off those who try to jeer at this genre, just as important in these songs is a rhythm & melody for those speed riffs to follow along with. Everything being produced up front & seemingly playing the same thing as one another all the time, does give it a sense of being not far from just white noise. However, there are similarities to death metal, the riffs & rhythms, which are not too unlike label mates Grave. But what pushes this into the black metal realm is the constant high speeds, the ever present horror movie keys & vocals that are also quite reminiscent of those movies. Actually, later, after my initial first listen to this album while flipping through the book & reading the lyrics, I thought, I don't even remember vocals, let alone someone spewing out these "blasphemies". The vocals are there, but as much a part of the overall feeling & sound of utter horror & fright as the rest of the instruments-they just scream all the way through. Making this album as entertaining as another horror story. Be afraid...very, very afraid.
