Annihilator - In Command (Live 1989-1990) (1996)

There's a strange contradiction in having the cover of this first official Annihilator be graced with a grown-up, 'sexy' version of the Alice in Hell character that looks like she belongs in a Whitesnake video, and then the fact that the performances from the album are taken from back when the Canadians were actually a pretty good band, and Alice was a younger person. Another remnant of the Roadrunner contract, In Command wants the potential fanbase to know loud and clear that this is material taken from the band's prime, thus the years are placed glaringly in the title itself, and that's a good thing, because we are treated with the band's best music to date and nothing from the lengthy slack-off period which the band was still smack in the middle of.

It's also to be noted that this record is split between the Randy Rampage and Coburn Pharr eras, but both are represented rather well with about a half dozen tracks or so from their respective albums. The first volley of tunes with Randy are the best in that they're much more aggressive, and his voice sounds nasty while the guitars sound pretty damn good. Rhythms are right up front, but leads cut through, the bass is reasonably audible and the drumming is pretty intense throughout, with Hartann meting out even more energy than he gave us on record. All the good tracks are represented, whether you're into "Word Salad" or "Road to Ruin". I think Pharr has a rougher time in the live setting, his voice gets a little wild and weird on some of his fronted tracks, but at the same time it's a little more unpredictable up against the studio versions, and whatever reverb levels and instruments are set to here feels more resonant and atmospheric while the first half of the album is way more straight-to-the-face.

You will also get to hear Coburn singing "Alison Hell", with mixed results, but this is arguably the best sounding track instrumentally on the latter half of the recording. It's closed out with a cover of AC/DC's "Live Wire" performed with some genuine energy and confidence, capping off what is in my opinion a pretty passable live effort. I got more out of listening through this than the last three studio albums the band had released, it doesn't sound too professionally polished so you get a good audience vibe, and a clear indicator of the potential and power this band had on a starving thrash audience at the close of the 80s. Granted, much of that audience would be drowned out by all the backwards baseball caps and plaid shirts in the following decade, and Annihilator would have succeeded much more if they had appeared in, say, 1986 with their debut, but in current times all this stuff has gotten pretty popular again and if you're in the mood for a live record in this genre that got little attention, this is alright.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.annihilatormetal.com/

Annihilator - Refresh the Demon (1996)

Don't tease with a cover that reminds me of Abominog, bro, one of my favorite (if cheesy) Uriah Heep albums of the 80s and beyond. If I were to guess by the title, Refresh the Demon, I would surmise that this record might be Annihilator's attempt at 'righting the ship' from its previous two discs, and I can say with fairness that is exactly what happens here...to an extent. This one definitely feels like a record written for its time period but keeping its roots primarily in the thrash that put Jeff Waters on the map to begin with. If a lot of the simpler, groovier and chugging rhythms tend to remind me of things Dimebag Darrell was writing on records like Cowboys from Hell, so be it, but at least the compositions retain some degree of Annihilator's past, the "Alison Hell" squeals in "A Man Called Nothing" being one of many examples).

That's not to say Refresh the Demon is good, in fact it's quite mediocre at its best, but there is a settling in and structure to how this one is composed which seem consistent. Waters has settled into his vocal duties much more on this, not that they are outstanding by any measure, but he rarely goes too over the top when he's emoting certain cheesy lyrics. There are a number of those Dave Mustaine snarled lines, to be sure, but the music in tracks like "Ultraparanoia" and "A Man Called Nothing" at least keeps you distracted enough not to care too much about such shortcomings. There's definitely a bit of trad hard rock and heavy metal inspiration to pieces like "City of Ice" and "Anything for Money", but they're blended in with enough thrashing finesse that they don't do anything groan-inducing like half of King of the Kill was. It only goes too far on something like "Hunger", with a bluesy hard rock shuffle that again reminds me of Nuno's writing in Extreme, but even this isn't a terrible tune in context. "Innocent Eyes" is a shitty, forgettable ballad and the worst song here, no surprise that one was pushed off to the end but should have been pushed a little further...into the nearest river.

The leads are generally well written and provide most of the album's exciting moments, although they're not terribly interesting if isolated from the rest of the tracks. Randy Black performs the drumming adequately, the capable veteran who replaced Mike Mangini on the prior album, and the bass is alright but never really a standout through the track list. Production is punchy and accessible, maybe even continuing the standard set by the prior album as feeling a little too glossy to really do the heavier tracks justice, but those seeking something 'current' for the mid-90s probably wouldn't have minded this so much. Refresh the Demon is nothing impressive by any means, and if not for covering this whole discography I wouldn't have revisited it, but if someone were playing this in the car I would grin and bear it, while King of the Kill would have us pulling over so I can catch an Uber. Bland but passable 90s thrash that isn't aware that for at least the next decade, the style of all those bands in Metallica's wake was just 'over', and in this case not merely for being passé, but for just not being very good.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

https://www.annihilatormetal.com/

Annihilator - Bag of Tricks (1994)

The cover artwork for Bag of Tricks might actually be a little cooler than the two full-length albums before it, but that's nothing to get excited about, as this is merely an early fan-package probably released to fill out some contractual agreement with Roadrunner. I believe Annihilator had at this point moved over to Music for Nations for new studio material, so this feels like a loose collection of odds and ends that suffers a bit from the inconsistency of its contents. At the very least, though, we would assume we could be spared from the lamentable direction the band proper had taken through its mid-90s material, and Bag of Tricks was sticking to the band's demos and debut album and little else. To that end, this was probably worth tracking down if only for the diehards.

By far the best content here are the unreleased tracks "Back to the Crypt" and "Gallery" which had Randy Rampage on vocals and were recorded as demos for Never, Neverland while he was still in the lineup, but for whatever dumb reason never manifest on the actual album. These aren't the catchiest songs the group had written, but they definitely remind me of tunes like "Wicked Mystic" or "Burns Like a Buzzsaw Blade" and have some of that early nastiness present. Riff-wise, they aren't super memorable, but the leads are good and the energy is fiendish and vibrant as the band was when they hit the studio for the debut, and in fact these tunes belong more with that than the sophomore. The "Alison Hell" remastered track is worthless to me, why bother messing with something that was already excellent, and it doesn't offer enough of a notable difference for me to care. The demo cuts for Set the World on Fire are also quite uninteresting, and the new track from that era, "Fantastic Things", feels like an acoustic AOR track that would have only brought that album down even more, though it of itself isn't entirely terrible.

The old demo at the end of the compilation is pretty neat because you're hearing tunes like "Alison Hell" and "Phantasmagoria" with even more savage, extreme vocals from Jeff Waters which were quite hilarious but also kind of awesome at the same time. And the EP's worth of live tracks are actually recorded decently enough for the 80s or early 90s and make "Human Insecticide" and "W.T.Y.D." shien in the live setting. So ultimately, this could better be titled Mixed Bag of Tricks, but at least half of the content shouldn't have been tossed into the bin, and as a fan of those first two albums I thought it was neat to hear those unreleased tracks and confirmation of the band's skill in the live setting. At the same time, a little bit of a painful reminder of the band's then-present decline in quality.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10]

https://www.annihilatormetal.com/

Embracing - I Bear the Burden of Time (1996)

I Bear the Burden of Time is the textbook example of an album that could have likely succeeded if not for a crippling production that rendered it little more than long demo. Embracing clearly had the chops to reach the next level with a lot of their Swedish peers, and even came up with a few riffing configurations or ideas that felt fresh to me as I was exploring all this stuff in the 90s, but damn does this album just sound rather weak in the execution of its mix. Now I say that as a fan, this is my favorite of their two offerings, and I think it's worth a listen even despite this major shortcoming, but to think what an AAA+ studio production would have done for all these catchy tunes. I'm vaguely aware of a digital reissue for this that came out like a decade afterwards, which may or may not have a remaster, but even worse cover artwork, so I can't really speak if that solves the problem or if it's even just too late to matter...

Early At the Gates or Dark Tranquillity would be your reference point here, with thin and melodic rhythm guitars as the rule rather than constant barrages of thicker chords. Sure, the latter are present when it matters, but this is a band that simply THRIVES on those old classic metal melodies coursing across the verses and chorus sections. Even with this tinny mix, the mood being created by those lines and the chords and bass beneath is ample evidence enough that this was some choice stuff neutered by the low-impact recording. The vocals are actually fairy standard for the style, a protracted rasp that falls more in line with black metal, but it's just too loud in the mix and that sort of grinds against the more beautiful performance of the instruments. You do get some other vocals here, distant shouts of torment as in "Shades Embrace", and those are automatically more atmospheric and interesting, but it's again not that the vocals are bad, they are spot on for the style, just given a little too much heft against the true gifts that the album has to offer.

Clean guitar parts, leads, synths, I Bear the Burden of Time had a lot to offer, total 90s escapism that feels like melodeath flirting with a bit of proggy/Goth atmosphere, but sounding like a bad demo tape that your friends recorded in your basement one soggy afternoon with the early version of some dated digital recording software. If you could bulk this one up like a Whoracle, a Rusted Angel, or even to the level of a Steel Bath Suicide (which was itself a little rougher than normal, but a masterpiece by comparison to this), Embracing would have had their feet in the door towards that upper echelon of Swedish melodic death metal royalty, or at least this debut would enjoy a cult status greater than just a handful of curmudgeons who complain about what might have been...

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

Vargavinter - Frostfödd (1996)

Back in the 90s there was a bit of an explosion in popularity around the AD&D campaigns I was running, and we somehow ended up with a few dozen players (some at my University, some in my hometown), and I bring this up because for some reason long lost to my memory, this particular black metal album became like a 'mascot' for our play group. Perhaps we were just being ironic because those of us who were also metalheads had become so inundated with the black metal genre that we found it a bit silly or cliched, but we were constantly lavishing praise upon this as some sort of gag. In the end, though, the joke was really on us, because Frostfödd is actually a solid, unsung Swedish black metal effort and one of the Invasion Records releases that I pull out most often when I'm in the mood.

It has all the staples: the purply-frost artwork mirrored photography, the glowing digital logo and title, and a sound which nobody would ever accuse of any sort of originality. There are times when I get this one mixed up with other Swedish -vinter bands, like Midvinter, or Vinterland, but in truth this is defined by a strictly straightforward, blasting black metal aesthetic which doesn't often attempt to leap out at you with severely catchy riffing, but will throw in a few surprises like the flute in the title track, or an oboe, or some spoken word pieces. When it comes to the majority metal ingredients, it's quite akin to a Marduk or Dark Funeral, blasting away with abandon, simple migrations of chords that get you fully in the mood for this old Swedish stuff, slathered with strong, impish rasping, intense drums that never need to let up, and a pretty swarthy low end with some audible bass, although it too often mimics the rhythm guitar patterns and doesn't quite stand out.

There can also be a folksy swagger as with the great initial riff on "Den lybska örn", but even that one cedes to the incorruptible blasting purity. However, where a Marduk might use such a constrained and aggressive style to convey imagery of warfare or Hell, you can subtly feel a more nature-oriented warmth coming through the chord choices on Frostfödd, and it simultaneously feels like the writing was not terribly original, but also a head of its time, since there are floods of notes here that feel like precursors to so much of the nature black metal or post-black metal of later years. Vargavinter had nothing on much more memorable, interesting bands like Dissection or Mörk Gryning in the same scene, but it's solidly produced, purist black metal that with just a little something extra for when I'm combing the shelves for a good frosty face-blasting...perhaps a poor choice of words.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

Golem - Eternity: The Weeping Horizons (1996)

I admit I have a soft spot for awful digital photography covers from that late 90s/00s era, and Golem's debut is a prime example. Superimpose some topless, 80s-haired bombshells over a skyscape, inverted as if they were guarding the gates to some Middle-Earth city, and then slam your pretty cool logo right in the middle. This was one of the first Invasion Records releases my friend and I bought from a small import record store in Seabrook, NH, and one that we were pretty surprised with when we put it on the sample CD player. That cheesy, memorable artwork has literally nothing to do with the actual sound, and it would have been received better with a great old school death metal cover, which it later was when combined with the second album in a re-issued collection in 2014.

But I digress...Eternity: The Weeping Horizons is very much Carcass-influenced melodic death metal, like a blend of Necroticism and Heartwork, only not as quite as clinical as the former, nor meaty and amazing as the latter. I even here a few grooves present that bring to mind Symphonies of Sickness, only this is much cleaner in tone and nowhere near as grotesque. The lyrics aren't medical texts, and cover more esoteric or personal topics, but the vocal exchange between a rasp and guttural is also derivative of the evolving British goregrind gods. Fortunately, the Germans are all over the place here, with a lot of excellent writing and melodies, helping to balance out that morbid body end with the chunkier riffs that feel like you're about to be exposed to the innards of some cows and pigs as part of an anti-meat campaign. The first few tracks on here, like "Throne of Confinements" or "Mental Force" are really great, with lots of shifting tempos and memorable guitars.

The production is a bit dry, reminding me of Necroticism, and all the atmosphere here has to emerge from the guitars themselves, but it's rather well-mixed for its day, and the guys have no end to the amount of riffing ideas they can produce from that Carcass palette, nor do they ever lose steam, because there aren't really any duds among the nine tracks and 43 minutes. A couple of riffs here or there also remind one of Pestilence circa Consuming Impulse and Testimony of the Ancients, with perhaps a helping of Chuck Schuldiner, and there's certainly nothing wrong with any of that. A very easy one to recommend to fans of that 90s Carcass material, especially if you felt there was never enough of it, the guitars are the stars of the show but everything else falls in check.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.golem-metal.de/index.php

Heavenwood - Diva (1996)

Although Moonspell should be credited for breaking Portugal out onto the international metal scene, it seemed as if there were a fairly long drought after their arrival, arguably until the black metal band Gaerea showed up and garnered buckets of underground praise. But that void is deceptive, because there have been a decent number of bands popping up over the decades, and a few of them were contemporaries of the aforementioned. So right around the time Fernando Ribeiro and crew were bridging the gap between black metal and Gothic metal, there appeared Heavenwood, another group with a focus more on the latter intertwined with some doom influence via Paradise Lost and the rest of the British scene. These guys were a wholly respectable outfit, relying on nothing but their music and melancholy and little theatrics.

Diva is their first and one of their finest offerings, an album that sits somewhere between Icon, Irreligious and Darkseed's Spellcraft on the Gothimetallurgimeter, a creation entirely of my own that I promise I will never mention again (though I retain the right to break such a promise). Beautiful, mournful melodies are splayed out over simpler chord patterns, with a pronounced growl vocal that certainly sounds like a blend of Holmes and Ribeiro, but also gives off some slightly higher, emotional shouting and some dripping, gothy backups. There's a Romantic quality to how they write their tunes which reminds me a little of On Thorns I Lay from Italy, but here you've got the presence of a keyboard rather than a violin. They're also not afraid to engage with a bit of dynamic range, granted the instrumentation remains consistent, but say "Flames of Vanity" gives you a bit of a pickup with the shuffling beats before it soaks down into the tears and gloom, and then "Since the First Smile" has this slower, rolling, tribal quality to the drums which really makes for an epic escape with the synth swells.

Production-wise, this album mostly holds up, but I think there are a few minor flaws, like the lead guitar sound can feel a little too thin, it needed some more weight and effects. The growls might also have been mixed in better, but for a debut I can't expect terribly much. The drums sound very good, the bass lines occasionally pop up below the solemn crush of the chords, and I can't fault a record like this which so effectively conveys its emotions, with catchy melodies that still rattle around in my head whenever I reflect back upon this niche of Gothic/doom. Diva arrived at a time when it probably could have had a bigger impact than it did...groups like Moonspell or Lacuna Coil were blowing up and Heavenwood might have followed, but I think the band might have lacked a little of the 'star power' or narcissism so many fans drool over in their music, rather they are really just a bunch of guys who happen to be quite good at this Gothic/doom metal style, and the antithesis of the album's title.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/HeavenwoodOfficial

Sirrah - Acme (1996)

Like a lot of folks, I was introduced to Sirrah through one of the Beauty in Darkness compilations that Nuclear Blast released; the title track to this debut featured prominently as one of the standouts there, and I had to track down the full-length debut of the same name, Acme, a name which I'm sure we associate more with the old Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote cartoons than Gothic, melancholic doom. I was taken aback by the songwriting itself, there is a bit more involved, a few more layers to peel back than you might be used to, and not unlike the first two Moonspell records, this had a more epic feel than some of the stuff coming from Theater of Tragedy or The Sins of Thy Beloved. In fact, the great use of rhythms and melody also reminded me of one of my favorite albums, Amorphis' Elegy, only if it were coming from a different background perspective than Finland and 70s prog and folk influence.

Well, that one particular track, "Acme", is magnificent even to this day, one of the more glorious individual tracks to emerge from that once-budding European scene, but it's hardly the only success this disc had to offer. The blend of higher pitched, catchy female vocal lines, mournful Goth growls, lighter toned keyboards, strings ("Bitter Seas"), and electric guitar melodies is very well honed across much of the album's playlength, and even where they drop out a bit of it and get darker with something like "On the Verge", reminiscent of earlier Paradise Lost had Fernando Ribeiro replaced Nick Holmes. You've got all those elements of Romance, Vampiric drama, and haunted castle vibes that you might have desired from Gothic/doom or even black metal, but configured in a slightly different package, perhaps due to minor cultural or regional aesthetics that the band members grew up with. Clearly this was much different than what Vader or Behemoth were coming up with, and further showcased Poland as a potential new hotbed for various sub-genres of metal.

There is one GLARING miscalculation on the album that will have you falling apart in laughter, but sadly to the detriment of Acme as a whole, and that is "Panacea", a track which resembles some old surf or cruise rock only if it were a gaggle of Gothic weirdos riding the waves. It's likely included to be a bit of harmless fun and break up the seriousness of the other material, but the rest is consistent enough that it just sticks out like a very sore thumb. That sort of thing might have fit the band Ghoul on their albums, which are quite silly all around, but it just doesn't belong here. In fact I'm shocked it wasn't omitted from further pressings, although this one hasn't gotten much action beyond the 90s whatsoever. Without that track, this is a stronger effort, but even with that warning, you owe it to yourself to check out Acme if you have any interest in that brief period where the sounds of the big British death/doom trio (Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema) were blended with Goth orchestration and drama to create a wave of fresher bands.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

Sentenced - Down (1996)

Down is a bit of an oddity for me, because I view it as both a crushing disappointment after Amok, and also as a pretty catch, evocative album on its own right, a showcase for a new vocalist who at least fits the bill of the direction the band was already spinning towards. This came out in Autumn that year, and I remember really digging that minimal aesthetic of the gold background and leaf, it seemed the perfect fit for the season, and frankly so did the music. I could almost predict what it was going to sound like, a slightly watered down version of the heavy metal influences that took over from the death metal roots on their previous masterpiece, but bleak and suicidal and atmospheric and, at least for this album, fresh and memorable. It doesn't rank up with the big boys (Amok and North from Here), but it's certainly on the upper end of their discog.

The cleaner fashioned guitars of the prior album return and dominate here, a bit less intricate in structure than a song like "The War Ain't Over!" or "Forever Lost", but tunes like "Shadegrown" here with its great, folksy melodic lick between the acoustic verses, show a lot of that still in the DNA. But Down doesn't show any hesitation to grab the hard rock aesthetics by the balls and make an album that is just about 100% song-oriented, radio friendly and they picked a new frontman in Ville Laihiala who could match those aesthetics. His voice is grainy, like there's something rough rattling around in his throat, but it's also quite melodic, and really travels alongside the autumnal riffing and depressing themes. Sure, you could totally picture this guy fronting one of the sleazier glam bands of the 80s, and he's shown in his side band that he can go even more commercial, but that grit to his performance is what helps carry a lot of these songs over the top, and although I was quite let down that Taneli Jarva and his gruesome growls had moved on from the band, I quickly came to accept this change.

Otherwise, the guitars here are pretty wonderful, treading through simpler chords and picking sequences that mesh together Goth rock and traditional heavy metal, with a few minor hints that they had emerged from a slightly more extreme background. The riffs on "Bleed" or "Noose" are instantly memorable, and all the other atmospherics like acoustics and Waldemar Sorychta's guest keys are seamlessly integrated, which they had some experience with on Amok, but really ramped up here to make sure these tunes were ending in chorus parts that would cling to your brain for a very long time. I do think Down runs out of steam in the second half, the songs are good but not usually what I'm looking forward to when I spin this, but it's got a resonant, atmospheric, not-too-polished mix that stands up even today, and when I want something in that contrasting sad/rocking style found in a lot of the more 'natural' Gothic metal, this is absolutely returning to my rotation on a semi-annual basis.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

Gates of Ishtar - A Bloodred Path (1996)

Of all the many second string melodic Swedish death and black metal bands, Invasion Records or adjacent that I've been writing about lately, Gates of Ishtar might have had the most subcultural penetration around me in the mid 90s. This was a band of hopefuls that most of my metal friends knew about, even those who weren't heavily versed in the underground; many picked up their CDs at the local shops, and some even venerated them on a similar level to Dark Tranquillity and In Flames. I'm not going to claim that they were as distinct as their peers, in fact I think why they ultimately folded, but it's clear from even listening to this debut that they were solid, professional songwriters who knew the right balance for that particular strain of melodic death metal before it had even fully imprinted on the metal universe.

A Bloodred Path still sounds tight in the modern age, with a roster that included Oskar Karlsson, who had drummed on a number of the Invasion and related acts, several in a similar style (like The Everdawn), and this was probably his most popular band. There was also the vocalist, Mikael Sandorf who would go on to continue this style with The Duskfall, which saw some success as well, but never quite struck me as impressively as this band once did. Essentially this is the band which had it all...intense drumming that seemed effortless, no end to the streams of melody they could tear out from their strings, a good mix of bass that stood itself out in places from the rhythm tracks, and a vocalist who was well versed in that At the Gates style of punchy syncopated snarling. Listening back on this debut today, it does suffer from that effect where the more Swedish melodeath I hear, the more exhausted I get with melodies that seem rather predictable, but 25 years ago this all felt much fresher, like these Swedes had resurrected the NWOBHM bands, sped up their melodies and harmonies, and cloaked them in a savage death metal influence which would keep them current and appealing to all the death metal, black metal and metalcore fans.

And this album is really damn consistent, so much that I wouldn't dare pick out particular songs over others, because they all strike at the same level of quality and emotion. They're not absolute earworms like you'd hear on The Jester Race, but they were close enough that you can understand why fans of some of the bigger Swedish acts in the niche would turn to this as an immediate backup. Fast, intricate, well plotted, there was no question that these guys were going to pull more attention, and thus no surprise when they finally did. While I wasn't as hot on them as the aforementioned friends of the day, A Bloodred Path definitely holds its own, has grown on me in time, and there's no way I can deny the level of talent they had in their midst.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/gatesofishtarofficial

The Everdawn - Opera of the Damned EP (1996)

The Everdawn was an obscure melodic death metal act out of Sweden, and another of the several projects featuring the late Oskar Karlsson on the drums. This band took on a more standard style reminiscent of an At the Gates, although there were some marginal differences. For instance, the snarls here were only partly akin to Lindberg, they had more of a mealy-mouthed feel to them, but still some of that sinister bird of prey vibe that he mastered the year before this with Slaughter of the Soul. The tunes also have a more rock & roll vibe in a few spots, perhaps a bit more blues to the lead construction, but it's certainly not death & roll, because by and large the music here feels similar to that of their more popular peers, but by no means a direct ripoff of any one.

Opera of the Damned is a tight, intense EP with a good mix of fast and mid-paced EP that show the range they are capable of, and although their basic chord constructions might have felt a little predictable like many of the B- or C-tier melodeath squads, the 15 minutes of material is always exciting, the melodic outbreaks placed just perfectly to keep you hooked throughout. You want harmonies, you got them. You want to blast off, you got it, in fact I think the material here would even sate those tracking down some melodic Swedish black metal, like a more rock-oriented Dissection variant. It's not the most memorable stuff out there, and not even among the most memorable that would enter that Invasion Records family (after this EP), but this is timeless, effective, and produced well enough that it's still worth spending a little time with here or there.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

Scheitan - Travelling in Ancient Times (1996)

Scheitan is a band that occupied the Invasion Records roster for a couple of albums before garnering enough success to head over to the Century Media roster, and they're another example of a band who was quite far from unique, but skilled enough among the Swedish black metal underground to create competent, compelling material with a reasonable quality production that stood out amongst some of their shoddier peers. It's members, like the late Oskar Karlsson, sowed their seeds across a number of bands on this scene (and label roster) such as The Everdawn, Gates of Ishtar, Defleshed and Sarcasm, so there was already a massive creative impetus going into Travelling in Ancient Times, and perhaps explains why it sounds so damn professional even 27 years after it was first introduced.

Thematically it seems to be a mix of a paean to nature, with plenty of Christian slaughter involved, and I almost get a Viking thing going on, although the band's name is also a translation of 'Satan'. Basically, they've got all the important topics of the day covered, but you won't have time to mull this over, after a brief, pompous synth intro cedes into the straight blasting black metal of "October Journey". This one isn't a terribly interesting song, and that's one of the downsides to Scheitan in general, however they will often sate your hunger for a tasty riff as at :30 in "Autumn Departure" or the synth-laden, swaggering "Ride the Icewinds", or the Viking trot of "In Battle With Angels". There is plenty of payoff throughout this debut, so don't expect your drier Marduk-based experience where the volley of speed, blasting and intensity is really the whole point and any attempt at finer songwriting is an afterthought. Scheitan were going for the whole package, as interested in pleasing fans of their other bands' styles as much as the black metal core, and so there's a decent balance of synth atmospheres for folks who liked their use on Bathory's Blood Fire Death, and some muscular, propulsive rhythms to knock you prone.

The sound quality helps a lot, and I remember that causing this to stand out against labelmates like Skymning or Embracing, this one sounded as if was at a whole other level of competence. The drums, guitars and synthesizers all sound awesome, and while the raving bark hurled over the top of it isn't quite so potent or unique, it's fully suited to contrast the instruments. Basically I try to think of this as a more 'modern' (for the 90s) retelling of Bathory's shift into Viking metal, even though the original was still around at the time, so if you want a 'tidier' Blood Fire Death with a strong emphasis on balanced composition, Travelling in Ancient Times is a gem. I'd hesitate to call it great, but for an album that I just listen through once every few years it holds up.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

Helloween - The Time of the Oath (1996)

The Time of the Oath basically takes the ball that Master of the Rings kicked out onto the field and then maintains possession for well over an hour with another set of inspired songs that help prove that this is, score-for-score, one of the greatest bands that humanity has ever produced. Nope, the Andi Deris era was not going to be a fluke with just that one-off, surprising new LP that pulled Helloween from the brink of oblivion they had teetered on just a few years prior with Chameleon or Pink Bubbles Go Ape. The cover art was a little unusual, combining the Keeper from the earlier Kiske albums with the field of stars and rings from the previous album, I'm wondering if it was recommended to them to do something like this to try and help bring back the fanbase that might have abandoned them in the earliest 90s, a statement that the ship had been righted?!

As it turns out, such a thing wouldn't be necessary, because The Time of the Oath stands wholly on its own merits, or at least the ones the previous album established. Lots of heavy, thundering songs spiked through with the traditional melodies and harmonies on the guitars, and Andi Deris' voice which some might consider more fragile sounding until he starts hammering out the high points on opening numbers like "We Burn" and "Steel Tormentor". This is another album, though, that does not exactly hit you with the strongest numbers up front. Personal favorites include "Wake Up the Mountain" with its face-melting shred intro and an incredible progression through verse, glinting melodic pre-chorus and then a potent chorus which has never left my memory since. "Power" does bring back a bit of a Keeper of the Seven Keys vibe, but with that Deris magic replacing Kiske, and "Kings Will Be Kings" is an absolute scorcher, another chorus that just fucking flattens me. Even the goofiest track here, "Anything My Mama Don't Like", which might aesthetically seem like an error among these more majestic and epic power metal tracks, is really goddamn catchy despite all its flashier hard rock pizzazz. Nice little rebellion anthem though even if I was past my teens.

There is a little bit of a washed out feel to the production on this album, and it's one I think might have benefited from some further clarity, however don't let me mislead you into thinking that the instruments and vocals aren't front and center. There's a lot going on here, much like any modern effort in the Helloween catalogue, and I'm psyched that it all translates to my ears, but I remember thinking there was something in the mix that wasn't quite right. Ultimately, though, it's a nit pick, because the music is so wonderful that it more than compensates, and I was just so ecstatic at the time that we were getting this new era of the band that absolutely ruled...the 90s were of course a huge era for death metal, black metal, nu metal, alternative, grunge, and all that, but to hear heavy/power metal bands modernizing themselves to not only run with the changing landscape but also to CONQUER it...I'd take single riffs off this album over Pearl Jam and the fucking Goo Goo Dolls any day!

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

https://www.helloween.org/

Rage - End of All Days (1996)

End of All Days might not be able to match Black in Mind or The Missing Link blow for blow with regards to memorable content, but this is at least the album where I think they got that 90s production style down pat. The guitars feel beefier and punchier, but cleaner against the other instruments, and it just sounds great churning out of my car stereo or PC speakers, while keeping that generally more aggressive sound which is a little more low-end-heavy and thrashing than where they were headed at the end of the previous decade. The Andreas Marschall cover art on this was quite cool, I like how they integrated the Soundchaser mascot into a sort of Mayan, apocalyptic aesthetic and this definitely triggers the Aliens and Predator nerd within me. This is also another encouraging example of how so many European bands kept classy while their American counterparts were falling apart. Sure, this is no Perfect Man, but an album like End of All Days is exponentially superior to bullshit like Load, Re-Load, Risk, Demolition, and The Graveyard.

It's a strong effort, perhaps even a little underrated, but it doesn't exactly drip with the then-modern day classics that were present on the others I mentioned at the beginning of the review. For every "Higher Than the Sky", there are a half-dozen songs that few will remember. "End of All Days" is one I really like, the perky little melodies in the riffs and Peavy giving us some sustained Rage range, even if it's obvious from the previous album and this one that his voice was already becoming limited after over a decade of touring and recording. A lot of dark, mysterious, brooding pieces here that maintain the apocalyptic or horrific vibes that the band had been hitting hard in the 90s, and a cut like "Voice from the Vault" is a great manifestation of that. Even as I journey deeper into the track list, everything holds together quite well, but tunes such as "Face Behind the Mask" and "Silent Victory", while competent, varied, and well-produced, just seem to lack a little of that staying star power which would populate set-lists for the ensuing decades. They experiment a little with some other guitar effects, very mild orchestrated feel from Christian Wolff, but even though Lingua Mortis had dropped earlier in the year, it doesn't rub off too much on this.

I can listen through End of All Days without ever feeling too bored or disaffected, but it's not adding a lot of new tricks to the Rage legacy, maybe just smoothing over the studio side of things while keeping the general level of competent songwriting high enough. It's not as catchy or experimental as a lot of its neighbors, so I'm not even sure how much enthusiastic the band would have been for this collection of tunes as they had their heads in the ambitions of their symphonic side. I certainly remember grabbing this one while away at University, and being pretty happy that some of my German heroes were holding the fort while the heavy metal genre at large was simultaneously imploding and mutating. In fact, it was this streak of mid 90s power metal staples from overseas, as well as the emergence of stuff like black metal and melodic death, that initially got me interested in writing reviews and doing my old paper fan zine, which eventually led to my tireless devotion to exploring all this stuff well into Middle Age. So a solid album with good production, and a slight sentimental attachment, just not among their best.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.rage-official.com/

Rage - Higher Than the Sky EP (1996)

Another of the Japanese-only Rage rarities put out through Victor Records was this Higher Than the Sky EP, which was similar to Refuge in that it contained a pretty popular album track and then a couple of cover tunes. In this case, the covers were taken from a pair of tribute albums that the Germans contributed to for the respective artists, but they've also fattened this one up with a couple cuts that their fans in Japan might not have heard from other version of the Black in Mind album overseas. So there's an attempt at putting together some value here, like with a lot of Japanese releases, but as usual since this time there's been some other, massive remastered version where you can get all this material and a lot more, really dating this EP as a product. In this case it's the very recent Dr. Bones Lethal Recordings reissue of End of All Days with a TON of content added to it across two discs. I simply cover some of these EPs or maxis in their earlier incarnations because 1) I'm a scrub and only own the original full-length album without all the bells and whistles and 2) when I get to covering End of All Days I'll focus on that core album.

As natural as it is for a group like this one to tackle Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, it's almost too much of an obvious choice, especially for "The Trooper". When Rage is covering The Troggs or The Police they're making some level of transformation to those tunes which brings them more into the metal fold, and it's a little more interesting to hear. Their rendition of "The Trooper" is played very straight, and while entirely competent it's just as forgettable as so many other attempts at the original. On the other hand, the slightly beefier "Jawbreaker" has a real nice production to it, and it's cool to hear this one taken on with the rougher vocals....but everything here is awesome...the guitar tone, etc. Again, super loyal but quite well done for what it is...I'd actually listen to this version occasionally even if craving the Priest one. My first time hearing this EP was also my first exposure to the originals "Forgive But Don't Forget" and "Tie the Rope", the former a pretty plodding but dynamic track with a nice pre-chorus hook and riff that lead into an equally memorable chugged out chorus; the latter more energetic and pretty much thrashing along throughout, but somewhat mediocre.

The production on those bonus tracks isn't all that great, but it works, and certain instruments like when the wah wah comes in on the lead in "Tie the Rope" are pretty ace. Overall I can see why they wouldn't make the cut for a final album although they could compete with some of the weaker cuts on those mid 90s Rage efforts. All told though, Higher in the Sky is these days a collectors-only affair which the rest of us can just experience on a better product, but if you needed to pad out the years with the already prolific 90s Rage and throw more money then, like Refuge, this one used its space wisely. Apart from the "Jawbreaker" cover though there is nothing here I care that much to revisit.

Verdict: Indifference [5.25/10]

http://www.rage-official.com/

Rage - Lingua Mortis (1996)

Though trips to the symphonic well would become more common in the band's later years, Lingua Mortis was kind of a novelty at its release in the 90s and marked a potential new direction for a band that was likely already looking for some new tricks. In fact, the very idea of hiring some orchestra musicians for a heavy metal studio recording alongside a band that was hardly a household name was pretty new in general. You had a handful of acts like Therion who were already exploring this ground, but for a longstanding power/speed metal act like this one it was fresh territory. However, considering that Rage already incorporated some violins, contrabass and cello on certain Black in Mind tracks the year prior, one would hardly consider it a surprise, more of a statement that 'this is happening' and the band wanted to explore this side of their influences without being dragged down by the 'metal first' component...

...and yet, the metal is still present, in a somewhat slovenly and subdued way, meaning that the bulk of it is just used to prop up some of the darkness and moodiness within these converted tracks. Lingua Mortis is somewhat of a raw recording, in that the band's core rock instruments and Wagner's vocals don't sound so seamless alongside the orchestration. The guitars for "In a Nameless Time", for example, are a bit rough if you're going into this with some expectation of high studio gloss, but if you're more interested in how it all comes across live, they're adequate. Wagner's vocals, while largely on point with the 90s studio output, can also get a little too grimy, especially when he's sustaining a lower, angrier tone, and there a couple lines where he almost seems to fall on his face. It's almost a shame that they didn't just keep the whole affair instrumental, maybe keep the guitars, bass and rock drums and have more of Peavy's vocals be interpreted by a choir, because where this works best is as an atmospheric, eerie overture of cuts like the aforementioned "In a Nameless Time" or "Alive but Dead", the latter of which just doesn't sound that great with him adding in the singing alongside the pianos and whatnot...it almost sounds like someone is playing the music on a tape recorder while the conductor does his thing.

One of the other centerpieces here is a "Medley" which includes snippets of tracks like "Black in Mind" and "Sent by the Devil", recorded similar to the previous tracks with the orchestra and band in check, and then around these are arranged little vignettes like a purely symphonic moment of "Don't Fear the Winter" or "Firestorm". This is a giant mess, I can understand the idea being that with a limited amount of budget they can't really get a lot of hits onto this, but I'd have rather they let one or two of those smaller bits be played out in full. Again, the idea of MERGING these two forms here just hasn't hit its peak potential and that really drags down the effort as a whole. I actually like the orchestra side of this one quite a lot, but then the quartet of Peavy, Seven, Spiros and Chris sort of steps in its own ambition and gets its boots muddied. Not a total write-off, of course, because this is a learning step for how they'd work rather well within the medium in the future, and eventually and briefly spin it off into its own entity, but this one remains a curiosity for me more than anything else.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.rage-official.com/

Prong - Rude Awakening (1996)

Rude Awakening was another of those heavily divisive albums of the 90s, by a band that was constantly reinvigorating itself by layering in more influences than the hardcore punk and thrash which fueled it so heavily in the decade before. After a somewhat successful LP with Cleansing, they decided to shift further into their electronic fetish, and the result was an album incorporating everything from industrial embellishments, hip hop beats, bouncy groove metal riffs that mirrored some of the burgeoning nu metal of the day, and even some moody alternative rock which would structure some of Victor's vocal stylings and how the band would assembled its verse and chorus structures. Like its predecessor, it somehow managed to make all of this work, to fuse it onto the urban rusted framework that has always supported the group's atmosphere and lyrical disposition, and evoke a timelessness that pervades the stylistic migration of their first five full-lengths.

I absolutely loved the production on this one; whereas Cleansing was a bit more level instrumentally, this one is heavily saturated, fatter and really grooves along hard. Paul Vincent Raven provided the bass guitars for the second time, and his tone is awesome, these rumbling bass-lines which always enhanced all of Tommy's drudging, basic chug-laden riffs, and his more interesting squeals, pinches, melodic chords and other trickery that created such a well-rounded, exploratory sound. The drums feel a lot more electronic this time around, basically a blend of Ted Parsons steady mechanistic style and some actual programming, but as someone who was also playing around in an industrial band in the mid to late 90s I really enjoyed how it all came out. Sure, some of these beats are mighty basic, but when you listen closely you can hear all of these little beeps and gleeps and percussion effects that keep them interesting even when a few of Tommy's duller chug riffs are playing over them. At times this album feels like some dudes picked up a basic drum machine, pressed the pre-sets for some trip hop beats and then just let their imaginations splash all over that, and while it might seem crude or 'boring' to some, it forced Victor and company into creating some catchy riffs and vocal lines to help entrance the listener.

The vocals are the same blunt street-ready philosophy we'd always gotten, perhaps flirting a little bit more with rap or poetry in a couple of the verses but not too distanced from where they were on the 1994 album. I have to say the first three tracks on this remain some of my favorites in their catalog, from the jerky, slamming "Controller" that sounded like an industrialized Chaos A.D. outtake, through the insanely groovy and subversive "Caprice" and its adorable electronic melodies, to the more mellow, catchy, pop-like title track. Sure, it had a fairly awful spur-of-the-moment rockstar video courtesy of Rob Zombie, which does not at all represent the song's message, the album, or the band, but I'll try not to hold that against it since I've been listening to this one for almost a quarter century now and never gotten tired of it. These cuts do overshadow a few of the other tunes, to be honest, but even the weaker, less interesting tunes have some addicting vocal lines or effects which take my fingers off the skip button, and there are some deep, hypnotic grooves in cuts like "Without Hope" and "Slicing"; or a slight spin back to robotic thrash metal with "Mansruin", a tune likely to please that 90s industrial metal audience weaned on "Stigmata", "Ultra" and "Jesus Built My Hotrod". No surprise really that Tommy would go on to play with Ministry himself for awhile as Raven did.

It would be easy to write off Rude Awakening for the variety of influences tainting the band's original thrash concept, or because of its unfortunately parallels to the bad metal trends of its day, but it comes together really well, simplistic but engaging and memorable, almost like a automated factory version of Helmet, who were also trending hard at the time (and rightly so). Another of my favorite Prong albums, even long after its novelty had worn off, and I'm always happy to break it down off the shelf and go exploring through it again. Sadly, this would be the last album before the band would go on a sizable hiatus, before returning with something less creative and/or interesting, but in the interim Victor got to play with Ministry, and even Danzig, where he remains today in a more lucrative role.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (there is no kindness to waste)

https://prongmusic.com/

Borknagar - Borknagar (1996)

Viking/Norse metal acts might seem like a dime a dozen these days, with the subject matter so universally popular that you've got acts from many cultures using it as their lyrical inspiration, overarching concept, costume designs, and so forth. But I try to divide these into two camps. You've got the goofier, superficial stuff which is most interested in partying, singing surface level tales of the mythology, and not really integrating its cultural context into the lyrics or the actual composition of the music. This can be fun on occasion, if you just want to concede to some mug-swinging caricature and don't mind living out a little stereotype, but I'm far more interested in the bands that integrate the philosophies of the 'Viking' heritage or the humble lessons of the Eddas directly into everything from the lyrical dispositions and personal outlooks to the construction of the music itself. While they didn't exactly beat Bathory or Enslaved to the punch, I've long felt that Borknagar was one of the first to successfully pull this off,  and to this day has never really strayed too far from the path that it laid out on this eponymous 1996 debut.

To those approaching this disc from any of their modern releases, whether in the Vintersorg-fronted era, or the beautiful, blissful True North, Borknagar will seem a comparably harsh experience. When I first picked this up it was alongside the sophomore The Olden Domain, which I gravitated towards at first, due to its comparative accessibility and slightly catchier songwriting. The debut has a more scathing attack to its guitar tone, though it's just as diverse as its successor, but for whatever reason the songs just didn't gel with my brain at the time and I was only listening to it as a backup for the records that came later. Decades on, I've certainly warmed to this one a lot, it's well ahead of its time and already encapsulates so much of the musical DNA to what has long been one of the most reliable and legendary bands in my entire collection. That's not to say it's perfect, but what is most striking about the album is just how different it sounded to so many of its Scandinavian peers. There's a brightness, a melancholic desperation to Øystein's chord-streaming here that was truly rare, only the Enslaved album Frost even came close, but even as much as I LOVE that album, some of the riff patterns seemed slightly more conventional to the black metal fundamentals that were already in place back in the early to mid 90s. This band was writing almost a 'new metal language', if that makes sense, the way only groups like Voivod, Slayer or the like accomplished through the prior decade.

There is some precedent, of course, that being Bathory's awe-inspiring Blood Fire Death record, which certain segments of Borknagar seem to pay conscious tribute to, as in the warlike, steady row of "Krigsstev" with its somber chants and martial percussion. However, there are many more layers being added to this record, such as the glinting, beautiful acoustic guitars engraved into a number of the tracks, those hillside-echoed chanted choirs, and the very core of how the guitars are written. It doesn't hurt that the lineup on this is astounding. Garm (aka Kristoffer Rygg) provided the nasty black metal snarls here, and it's one of my favorite of his performances, alongside the older, harsher Ulver material, with some wicked, mocking higher pitches he throws into some of his lines to give them a lot of personality as opposed to other new black metal vocalists arriving at the time who were taking that style and transforming it into something banal and monotonous. His burly chanting was also important in how it would set up I.C.S. Vortex's style going forward, and how a lot of other bands would also approach their own vocals. Infernus, later of Gorgoroth, played some awesome bass grooves on this album that also deserve mention, as this was another difference between this band and a lot of its peers. Ivar of Enslaved contributed keyboards, which could vary from the pompous pianos and martial orchestration of the instrumental "Tanker mot tind (Kvelding)" to the eerier, woodwind pads laid out over some of the darker metallic fare.

There is a point near the midst of this album where it just becomes one of my favorite things ever, so much that the earlier tunes (including that aforementioned instrumental) seem a little trite by comparison. I'm speaking of the "Krigsttev"/"Dauden"/"Grimskalle trell" trifecta which is among the most immersive, varied and impressive Borknagar material. Somber and soaring, sullen and powerful, an impressive send-up to that 1988-90 Bathory influence. This brilliance subsides a little with the following instrumental, "Nord naagauk", and that's a complaint I might have with the album in general...half of the ten tracks are instrumental, and while they sound thematic, some of the background sampling sounds too shoddy, and the composition feels a bit sporadic, too busy to balance against the surging metal tracks. I also found the rhythm guitar tone on the album a little grainy in its saturation, which was probably my earliest obstacle. These days I don't mind it so much, and it does work well to contrast the more broad, glorious synthesizers and clean vocals, but I think with the debut in general you could tell there were a few production kinks to work out. Apart from those quips, though, this is still a timeless sort of experience, one that will row you over swell in a cold storm if you just lose yourself to its mesmerizing show of force, whether you speak its language or not.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

http://borknagar.com/

Mercyful Fate - Into the Unknown (1996)

Into the Unknown might be one of the duller looking albums in the Mercyful Fate catalog, but not the worst of them. This marked a point for me when the band's inspiration seemed to be drying up and they were releasing albums to seemingly fill out a contract, or at least that's what a tour through their 1996-1999 material feels like. Nothing they put out was necessarily bad, but a lot of the riffs and ideas felt like mere retreads of others you'd already heard between Fate and the King Diamond albums. And that's really the greatest crime committed on Into the Unknown, which might be one of the more ironically titled albums I've come across, because this one is as straightforward and unsurprising as they get, sort of a mix of Don't Break the Oath, In the Shadows and then Time's production values, updated to their day.

Now you might say that even an average Mercyful Fate record is still probably better than a lot of other metal out there, and I have no argument against that. This is one I can enjoy sitting through because for what it lacks in creative development it compensates for in the energy level. The band is firing up a set of classic MF licks, with enough grooves to sate the fans of their earlier 90s material but a classic feel to the leads and harmonies which kicks me back a decade. The rhythm guitars are some of the simpler patterns they've scribed, with a leaden, chunky tone to them that keeps them hammering above the thick, embedded bass lines which sound pretty fuckin' rad on their own. The leads are modest but worthwhile, and they alternate between a mid-paced gait and the slower grooves from tunes like "Listen to the Bell" which sound like outtakes from In the Shadows (the song even has a line 'deep in the shadows...'). The drums sound good, and the band still knows how to structure a verse-chorus transition quite well, and there are clearly a handful of riffs here like the opener to "Fifteen Men" which I think are pretty damn awesome.

King himself sounds quite good, perhaps not as jazzed up or intense as his performances on the earlier albums in both his mainstays, but he does some cool falsetto counterpoints, and still can deliver some chorus parts that stand out from the rest. The lyrics here deal with cool subjects like Caribbean pirates and other period horror which helps expand out King's lexicon of chills, even if the music might in places feel a little dumbed down or redundant with cuts from In the Shadows and Time. I also got a kick out of the intro, "Lucifer", which is a chanted bastardization of "The Lord's Prayer". Cheesy, indeed, and the most useless track on the album, especially when you consider some of the great intros he's had before, but you just have to get a kick out of King Diamond thinking this was such an edgy idea in 1996. All told though, this is a solid record that I wouldn't necessarily break out unless I was really sick of the first four, except if I wanted to hear one particular tune. Certainly better than its follow-up, but not as timeless or inventive as I'd have hoped.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (This is your time, not mine)

https://mercyfulfatecoven.com/

Funeral Frost - Queen of Frost (1996)

There's a certain level of purity implied by such barbaric and amateur artwork on a black metal record like this. I'd be lying if I said that the cover itself, a raven-haired axe goddess terminating a blonde counterpart in some tiled Dark Age manor or comparable structure, wasn't a big factor in me wanting to check out this obscurity. Long out of print but looking really good on paper. The band name. The album title. The fact that it was released on some little homebrew imprint called Wolfnacht Domain, which might be the coolest label moniker ever if they had ever put out anything beyond this, which to my limited knowledge they did not. Queen of Frost has quite a few cards stacked in its favor before even a note has been played...

And admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised here to find a lo-fi but competent black metal recording that reminded me a bit of fellow Swedes Marduk during their mid-90s period, sans a little of the same capacity for blasting aggression. It's probably the dingy but clear production, and the way they subtly and effortless employ dire melodies alongside the savage outbursts. Then there's also a little bit of a Bathory (or Barathrum) viking pacing to some of the slower, groovier riffs which truly feels like the cover looks. The drums definitely sound like they're being beaten down in a garage, but the kicks create havoc with a continuous rumble that sounds like an avalanche of fist-sized hailstones bouncing off the roof above your head, and when they, in tandem with the guitars, whip up a storm of volatile speed it's hard not to picture a band of yetis barreling down a wintry mountainside on war sleds, spears thrust forward and ready to impale anyone unfortunate to be skiing there that day.

Queen of Frost is a little moody in how it shifts between the faster and slower moments, with just enough dissonance and tremolo picked uncertainty that I didn't find it as predictable as I might a lot of unknowns from the same era. The vocals aren't exactly the most evil sounding, but feel like a guy is having his throat gouged in with ice picks, and the bass lines, while only hovering slightly behind the rhythm guitars, are at least audible enough to make an impact on the album's infrastructure. There are also a few timid synths used in tunes like "Far Beyond the Ravenstar" (what a title). It's probably impossible to find this album without using the internet, but if you pine for these lost moments in the evolution of European black metal, I'd have to say this one is decent enough for a listen. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it has spunk. One of the guys would go on to drum in the band Jotunheim for a couple demos, and apparently there's more material released on an EP more than a decade after this album, but beyond that I'm not even sure of the rosters' longevity or participation in the broader Swedish scene.

Verdict: Win [7/10]