THUNDERBOLT - The Burning Deed of Deceit (AGONIA Records)
I must say that I prefer the more recent recordings of Thunderbolt, such phenomenal LPs as "Inhuman Ritual Massmurder" and "Apocalyptic Doom", which truly are superb pieces of extreme, fast and furious black metal. Yeah, definitely they belong to my favourite Polish black metal records of all time. But obviously Thunderbolt didn't start with these two albums, but had several other recordings prior to them... And while some ideological matters of early Thunderbolt bring mixed feelings, then I truly think that musically this band was always ready to defend themselves. "The Sons of the Darkness" - great album, again. And the second LP "The Burning Deed of Deceit" is even better; maybe not as killer as albums number three and four, but very, very close. This album comes in black gatefold cover (limited to 500 copies!) and already the whole layout can say a lot about the music… it is classic black metal layout, so very simple, black / white colouring, with great logo, goat's figure on the cover, gothic font everywhere and obviously with corpsepainted Paymon on the photo; who at the time was the only member of Thunderbolt (he used session musicians during the recording session, like an ex-drummer of Hate, Mittloff; but most of the instruments were played by him). And music fits this perfectly, as it also is just pure, classic, very Scandinavian sounding slab of hateful, but monumental black metal.
When I listen to "The Burning Deed of Deceit" I feel like the music was often very close to Emperor's early works, if only Emperor was less orchestral and way, way faster. But there are several slower, more epic fragments like in such songs as "Lord of Creation" and "Die With Your Religion", where you can hear some Emperor-like keyboards and even the vocals turn close to Ihsahn's howling. Don't treat this comparison as an accusation, as that's not what I meant. It is just to give you some of my first impressions, which I had when I was listening to "The Burning Deed of Deceit". Besides, there is just much more in the music of Thunderbolt than Emperor only. First and foremost, the album contains many fast and obscure parts. Paymon concentrates a lot on fast and uncompromising playing, but luckily does not forget about the atmosphere of black metal, about the coldness and grimness, which are so integral for it. But putting aside the influence taken from the classic Norwegian black metal; mainly bands like Emperor, Enslaved, Urgehal, Kvist, Troll (but again, with much less keyboards) - first and foremost I must just write that "The Burning Deed of Deceit" is perfectly written black metal album. Each song is quite lengthy, from six up to ten minutes on the clock, but they have a lot of diversity, with great balance between the harshness, ferocity and epicness, with many great riffs and ideas, fantastic harsh vocals... It is almost impossible to pick up my favourite track, because the quality within every song and through the entire LP is the same; high as fuck. I can understand though if some of you will say that the album is slightly monotonous, because it feels like it, but that's because you need to listen to it carefully, hear the riffs, tempo changes, keyboard fillings, melodies and so on and on; only then you can realize that this album is not a constant wall of unreadable blast, but something more interesting and intriguing.
Personally I love it. This is one of these albums, which you play in candle lightened room, maybe have just enough of light to be able to read the lyrics and only then you can truly hear the music and let its feeling and atmosphere devour you and freeze your blood. Just listen to such "Blood of the Victorious King", with all these layers, which this song has. It is nothing new in this kind of music of course, but it's just very well composed and performed black metal, with many awesome ideas. With such songs as "Blood of the Victorious King", "Die With Your Religion", "Key to the Century of Death" and with Darkthrone's "Transilvanian Hunger" cover for the end, I have no doubts that it is a strong material and it should be praised by all black metal maniacs. Sadly I also have a feeling like Thunderbolt and "The Burning Deed of Deceit" are very underestimated, while I am sure that if it was recorded by a Norwegian, not Polish band, then people around the world would piss themselves saying how cult this band and album are. Who cares for stupidity.
Standout tracks: "Blood of the Victorious King", "Die With Your Religion", "Key to the Century of Death"
Final rate: 80/100
When I listen to "The Burning Deed of Deceit" I feel like the music was often very close to Emperor's early works, if only Emperor was less orchestral and way, way faster. But there are several slower, more epic fragments like in such songs as "Lord of Creation" and "Die With Your Religion", where you can hear some Emperor-like keyboards and even the vocals turn close to Ihsahn's howling. Don't treat this comparison as an accusation, as that's not what I meant. It is just to give you some of my first impressions, which I had when I was listening to "The Burning Deed of Deceit". Besides, there is just much more in the music of Thunderbolt than Emperor only. First and foremost, the album contains many fast and obscure parts. Paymon concentrates a lot on fast and uncompromising playing, but luckily does not forget about the atmosphere of black metal, about the coldness and grimness, which are so integral for it. But putting aside the influence taken from the classic Norwegian black metal; mainly bands like Emperor, Enslaved, Urgehal, Kvist, Troll (but again, with much less keyboards) - first and foremost I must just write that "The Burning Deed of Deceit" is perfectly written black metal album. Each song is quite lengthy, from six up to ten minutes on the clock, but they have a lot of diversity, with great balance between the harshness, ferocity and epicness, with many great riffs and ideas, fantastic harsh vocals... It is almost impossible to pick up my favourite track, because the quality within every song and through the entire LP is the same; high as fuck. I can understand though if some of you will say that the album is slightly monotonous, because it feels like it, but that's because you need to listen to it carefully, hear the riffs, tempo changes, keyboard fillings, melodies and so on and on; only then you can realize that this album is not a constant wall of unreadable blast, but something more interesting and intriguing.
Personally I love it. This is one of these albums, which you play in candle lightened room, maybe have just enough of light to be able to read the lyrics and only then you can truly hear the music and let its feeling and atmosphere devour you and freeze your blood. Just listen to such "Blood of the Victorious King", with all these layers, which this song has. It is nothing new in this kind of music of course, but it's just very well composed and performed black metal, with many awesome ideas. With such songs as "Blood of the Victorious King", "Die With Your Religion", "Key to the Century of Death" and with Darkthrone's "Transilvanian Hunger" cover for the end, I have no doubts that it is a strong material and it should be praised by all black metal maniacs. Sadly I also have a feeling like Thunderbolt and "The Burning Deed of Deceit" are very underestimated, while I am sure that if it was recorded by a Norwegian, not Polish band, then people around the world would piss themselves saying how cult this band and album are. Who cares for stupidity.
Standout tracks: "Blood of the Victorious King", "Die With Your Religion", "Key to the Century of Death"
Final rate: 80/100
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