02. Ghoul
03. Possessed
04. Lord of Swords
05. Helvete
06. Mouth of Madness
07. Unholy Paragon
08. Sacrifice
09. Morbid Lust
Ok, none of this "for the uninitiated" crap this time, because I'm just discovering this band myself. They're from Norway and seem to draw influences from just about every other BM band out there. Straight to the album...
This album is defined by Tsjuder's (pronounced Shoe-der) dogma of "no compromise" and there is definitely NO compromise. From the first second of "Malignant Coronation" to the last second of "Morbid Lust" this album kicks your fucking ass. This relentless black metal assault is nothing but 50 minutes of head-banging ass-kicking good times. Right off the bat I'm reminded of early Immortal, Darkthrone, and Mayhem, but with a much more modern production quality.
The guitars are clear and excellently played. There is no shortage of riffage in this album, that's for damn sure, and the guitars never get lost in a endless drone. There is precise tremolo picking, wonderful sweeps, and excellent technical work over all. There is definitely some punk and thrash influences in the guitars here, which also lend to the earlier Darkthrone comparison I made. Many of the songs have sections with high, fast, discordant riffs that are very reminiscent of early Mayhem and bring back wonderful feelings related to that era of black metal. Overall, nothing bad to say about the guitars at all, grade A black metal guitar work. (Bass is pretty much the same, and I'm happy that you can actually hear it [due to the decent production quality])
Vocals on this album aren't really anything extraordinary, though they are executed flawlessly. The voice of the singer is somewhere between Abbath(Immortal) and Hoest(Taake) and the vocals work perfectly with the riffs and passages.
Drumming is fast and precise and basically shares a lot of the same traits as the guitars in terms of influences.
Overall the album is a non-stop onslaught and if you like aggressive music period you should find something you can rock out to here. For me it's a spot-on black metal release with almost 0 room for criticism, I simply can't find anything to bitch about here. Definitely recommending this one, it'll be staying in my CD player for a while, that's for fucking sure!
Some things to note are the wonderful progression of "Mouth of Madness", the super thrash-punk feeling "Sacrifice", and the riffs throughout the middle of "Morbid Lust" which to me were very reminiscent of "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"-era Mayhem.
I said I probably wouldn't do it ever again, but here it is, the very next review :s
Rating: 6/6 - FUCKING AWESOME!
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