Possessed - Seven Churches

 

POSSESSED - Seven Churches (COMBAT Records - LP 1985)

Recently I’ve listened to many absolutely killer new death metal bands, which try to resurrect the traditional, classic sound and style of this music – and many really did succeed in this, recording absolutely crushing demos and albums. But once in a while I just feel a strong need to go back to some cult and original releases, of the forefathers of the genre… and why not do this today with Possessed’s classic release “Seven Churches”? Definitely this album is a great introduction to the thrashing death metal for everyone who wants to check where the origins of this music are, because as much as Venom and Bathory have been creating what we think black metal is, Possessed did the same with death metal. All in all “Seven Churches” does include the song titled “Death Metal” and this is also the title of their debut demo from 1984, right? This San Francisco based outfit, formed back in 1983 by guitarist Mike Torrao and drummer Mike Sus, who soon were joined by legendary guitarist / vocalist Jeff Becerra, are surely pioneers of death metal and they took something what bands like Slayer and Dark Angel did into even more evil, dark, obscure and aggressive territories.

Of course I doubt people, who listened to “Seven Churches” back in 1985 or 87 were calling it death metal though… for them it was more aggressive thrash metal band and when I listen to “Seven Churches” nowadays I can understand why and to be honest if I was bothering to give it any tags then it would probably just be a thrash / death metal, as clearly “Seven Churches” is not as raw, obscure and brutal as the first pure death metal LP “Scream Bloody Gore” and music wise Possessed was leaning into the technical thrash metal quite much. There’s a clear “slayerism” noticeable in many parts of the album, but not just that, luckily, as I feel like Possessed had also quite much in common with their Teutonic rivals Kreator. When you’ll listen to the opening song “The Exorcist” then you may get quite putted off at first by its almost chaotic and messy character, especially if you listen to the drum parts, then the vocals, which are almost out of tune at few times… it is pure madness what happens in this track and clearly Possessed must have been possessed (haha) when composing it! After something like this, “Pentagram” may seem much easier to listen to, with catchier main riff and with the overall more straight forward attitude. Ha, this is thrash / death metal in its perfection – eerie atmosphere, dark and satanic! “Burning in Hell” starts like good, old Sodom, but I definitely don’t mind that, as it is a real headbanger… I especially like that part, which follows the guitar solos, it is just killer stuff. But then “Evil Warriors” comes in and I must consider this track as one of the weakest parts of “Seven Churches”. The riffing in it is quite boring, to be honest, its “Show No Mercy” influence is very audible here, but really “Evil Warriors” is not as classy. The title song is way better, with really awesome main riff and generally killer feeling, one which could even be close to not only Slayer, but also to “Kill’em All”, only Possessed made it way more cruel and violent, plus it shreds with many chaotic, cacophonic guitar solos, which are equally fast as they were a mad race on the scales.

Side B of the vinyl definitely is more killer for me, as it included a couple of my favourite tracks from Possessed. First one is the cult “Death Metal” of corpse – and I cannot imagine a better way for culmination of such a great record. It is a real bombardment of thundering drums and razor sharp riffs, plus very memorable choruses, etc. That main riff belongs to those riffs, which have its place in the metal history, among the most perfect accords ever putted together by a man and the beast (as obviously dark forces must have helped Possessed creating something like this). “Death Metal” is absolutely amazing song, I do consider it to be one of my favourite tracks from the 80’s along with… eeeehhh, no, too many to mention hehe. But if you don’t know this song, then you must learn your metal history, man! “Satan’s Curse” is so wonderfully fast, so relentless that it just makes me bang my head all the time through and I can hardly stop doing so; really good song indeed. And finally another highly esteemed song is “Fallen Angel”. Just listen to the opening theme of it; that slow, epic riff and bells that accompany it – what a great result and something what will stick with you for ages. Afterwards this song turns into quite fast and merciless motherfucker, quite chaotic at few moments again, but this is just pure death / thrashing metal slaughter. I’m afraid though that again a couple of tracks from side B may seem nowadays to be more of the fillers, than something what can stand on the same level of excitement and thrashing death extravaganza as those, which I just mentioned. I mean song like “Twisted Minds” is just hmm… dull? I’m not saying it is terribly bad or whatever, I like few parts from it, mainly this riff, which accompanies the guitar solos and as overall it basically is a classic thrash metal song, but just not as utterly aggressive and memorable as one would expect from an album, which supposedly opened the gates of hell for a new genre called death metal.

Standout tracks: “Death Metal”, “Fallen Angel”, “Pentagram”, “Satan’s Curse”

Final rate: 85/100

Stench of Decay - Where Death and Decay Reign

STENCH OF DECAY - Where Death and Decay Reign (DETEST / ME SACO UN OJO - demo LP 2010)

At the time, when I was purchasing my copy of the Miasma demo (on vinyl from Detest Records) I also decided to get a similar release from the Finnish death metal combo called Stench of Decay. This is also a co-release between Detest Records and Me Saco Un Ojo Records and again came in form of lovely 12”LP. Stench of Decay was formed already in 2004 and after one, completely unknown demo from 2005, they released this piece of dark, lethal music titled “Where Death and Decay Reign“ in 2009. Being Finnish band I think they had equally big burden (speaking of their country’s death metal legacy) to the Swedish death metal bands, but maybe even a harder task to work on, as the Finnish bands once developed a more brutal and darker death metal sound, which they very quickly let to perish, opting for this ridiculous death’n’roll hybrid, which annoyed me so much (Xysma, Convulse, Sentenced…). What then can a Finnish death metal band play in 2009? Would it be possible for them to collect the legacy of their scene and then record something similar, maybe something between Demigod’s, Convulse’s and Demilich’s early albums? Hmm, I sincerely doubted that to be ever possible. And no, Stench of Decay, even if has some traces of their country’s old scene, do not really sound Finnish.

They’re more like a Scandinavian death metal in general, as some hints of the Swedish style can be traced here and there, but that comes along with some similarities to the good old Abhorrence and Amorphis. Plus, if I can point this out, I feel like Stench of Decay took a lot of influence from the good old Bolt Thrower. Those more melodic riffings in the beginning of each song will clearly bring you the memory of “IV Crusade” to your mind and that feeling will also be carried with that sort of marching, brutal rhythm, which is present quite often in each track. “Creation of Carnal Lust” is the best example for that kind of song, but really all three tracks will speak to you in the same language, with the difference that the title track is slightly more focused on the fast rhythm and aggressive measures. But I love the dynamics of those songs; how have they been built and what the structures of them are like (four songs in 24 minutes!). There are many infectious and memorable tunes, but also many which will crush your head with their heaviness and massive death metal nature. Stench of Decay likes to open with the harmonious riff, but will certainly make sure to provide as much aggression and energy as it is necessary. And that Abhorrence / Amorphis crushing cover of “Vulgar Necrolatry” (with the guest vocal performance of Jukka Kolehmainen!!!!!!!!) – this is something beyond my expectations; one of my favourite songs of all times, here so well performed, so brilliantly played, only Jukka’s vocals are not so deep anymore, but they’re fine anyway. If I also compliment the production of the demo, which is very crisp, very nice to ears and full of lethal energy, then it may seem like Stench of Decay recorded one of the coolest demos of the first decade of 2000. Great, recommendable stuff, so maybe it’s about time for Stench of Decay to finally put out a full length album?

Standout track: “Creation of Carnal Lust”, “Vulgar Necrolatry”

Final rate: 85/100

Arius - biography and review

ARIUS - biography

This American death metal band was based in Swanton, Ohio, and first was called Eviscerate, when was formed back in 1992. The founding members were: Matt Moyer (guitar), Shane McConnell (drums), Damon Conn (guitar) and Lucas Kummer (bass). After a while it was Lucas, who decided to take over the microphone and in this line up Eviscerate played several gigs and started intense rehearsing. Soon later the band lost Damon in 1993, due to his graduation from BGSU, with Bachelors in Music Theory. He later joined another Ohio death metal band, From the Depths, and recorded an album “From the Depths” in 1996 before quitting playing. Meanwhile Eviscerate was playing as the three-piece for a year, until they recruited ex-Ahriman guitarist Bryan Autullo in 1994. Matt then shifted his focus to lead guitar and Bryan filled up the rhythm guitar slot. From this moment the band played several gigs in Toledo, spreading their name around and finally getting an opportunity to play at the Michigan Death Fest. But somewhere in 1994 Eviscerate was contacted by a lawyer that said the band was infringing on the copyright of Evicerate from Colorado. So the moniker was quickly changed for Arius. The name came from a Roman diplomat whose name was Arius. He was the first Roman to deny the divinity of Christ, and was a principal entity in having him crucified. This change was also important to reflect the more philosophical nature of the lyrics, comparing the previous stuff, which was more gore / death oriented. In May 1995 the time came to record the first demo, so Arius entered RT Audio in Detroit (which is the same place, where Gutted recorded their phenomenal “Bleed us to Live” LP). „The Last Suffer" was recorded and produced in one weekend with engineer Rob Tylak. Matt Moyer said: “Thirty hours of hectic recording, and producing!! This is where much of our personal philosophies about life and religion intertwined with the pure violence and hatred and aggression lyrically and musically.”. The demo contains four songs (“Eviscerated”, “Kein Gott”, “Pronounced Dead” and “The Last Suffer”) of quite typical US death metal in the vein of Gutted, Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse and Monstrosity, but one can surely spot that the demo contained a solid and worthy material. Here’s what Matt said about one of the songs from the demo: "Kein Gott's" lyrics are all in German. "Kein Gott's" translation is the act of there being no God. Being from Switzerland, where there are no national religions, Lucas was brought up in a christian society in America. These views went against the atheistic views of the Swiss. So, this track is Lucas's release of his views of years of christianity being forced on him by society when he wasn't brought up to believe in christianity. The national language of Switzerland is German, so he very easily wrote lyrics in German, and then poured over a German dictionary to make sure each word was correct.”. Soon after its release the demo was picked up by Relapse Records for distribution. This is what Matt says about the story of Arius after the demo was released: “We were picked up by Relapse for distribution, but quickly dropped, because we felt we didn't belong there at the time. They had a lot of noisy bands back then, with bad production and many horror stories. We released and promoted the "The Last Suffer" with no support and no money. We did shows in Cleveland and Detroit and broke out of our small scene. We then went on to the International Death Fest V in Knocksville, TN. That was about the time that death metal hit rock bottom. Bands lose their labels, labels folded. We realized that we may never get signed. These developments forced Bryan to leave the band in '96.” After Bryan left, Arius played as the three-piece for a while, before they found new guitarist Matt Davis in late 1997. “We began gigging and developed Godless Productions to support the Toledo scene. We struggled through crappy clubs, all out riots, and even a gun fight! We then began writing for our long time coming CD, "Mask of Sanity".”. Supposedly Arius had about eight songs ready for this album and planned to enter the studio around 1998/99, but I have absolutely no information whether that have ever happened and I can only guess that Arius split up, before anything occurred. So “The Last Suffer” remains the only release of this cool US death metal band.

 

ARIUS - The Last Suffer (Demo 1995)
Recorded: Recorded and mixed at RT Studio. Produced by Arius and Rob Tylak. Mixed and mastered by Rob Tylak.
Recording line up: Lukas Kummer (Bass, Vocals), Shane McConnell (Drums), Matt Moyer (Guitars), Bryan Autullo     (Guitars, Keyboards)

Review: Back in the mid 90’s the death metal scene was so overcrowded that many really cool underground death metal bands couldn’t get through and never got the attention they probably deserved. I could mention really so many bands like that; among them there are those, which even managed to put out an album, like Gutted, Morgue, Burial (Netherlands), Sempiternal Deathreign, Merciless Death (Poland) and so many, which just never went anywhere further than a demo or EP… Evocation, Adversary, Excavation, Mastication, Purulence, Agoraphobia… Uhh, that list can be really, really long. But yeah, the fact is those were great bands, but they just couldn’t breakthrough. That happened just because the scene was hugely overcrowded and soon magazines and the labels lost interest in signing or writing about the next death metal band. They all moved to black metal, which seemed to be more exciting and dangerous. Luckily the underground lives on and most of those old recordings, even from bands, which never got popular, have been saved and often it’s now a time, when they more get attention that 20 years ago. And it’s great, because those recordings, like demos or EPs, were special. They had unique music and great dark atmosphere, which later on was missed for 15 years (only recently many young death metal bands managed to recreate that feeling). Many of these recordings got re-issed on CD or LP (Nirvana2002, Utumno, Uncanny, Altar, Ceremonial Oath, Disgrace… oh, so, so many!!!!!!!!) and many I got to know only thanks to the download blogs, which like raf666 or lockjaw, which offer these old demos for a free download, taking them right from the old cassettes. This is how I got to know demos from bands like Purulence, Adversary, Agoraphobia, Excavation, Decomposed, to mention just were few… And I think this is killer stuff! Another such great, forgotten band is Arius. I can realize that this band will be completely unknown to 99,9% of people, who read this… and to be honest, I also have never heard of them until I downloaded their demo and decided to check them out. They were just completely unknown and unlike say Purulence, who had a Gorguts guitarist in the line up, Arius moniker was never popping up in any interviews or wherever. No one would remember this band; hardly anyone would mention their demo. I really do bet that 99,9% of people, who’ll read this review won’t have any idea about Arius. So, it is time to change that and recommend Arius, as I can assure you that it’s an awesome death metal jewel from the mid 90’s. Arius was an American death metal band, formed in 1992 and “The Last Suffer” was their only recording, a demo which they did in 1995. Style wise this is pretty much nothing more or less, but a classic US styled death metal. If you’ll think of such bands as Gutted (GODS!), Monstrosity (“Imperial Doom” LP), early Suffocation, Malevolent Creation and some European acts like Cancer and the Swedish masters of slaughter Vomitory, then you may have a picture of what Arius and “The Last Suffer” were like. Even the vocalist Lukas Kummer sounded here like George Corpsegrinder from the time of the early Monstrosity recordings hehe! And right from the first song – “Eviscerated” – which is a 6,5 minute long death metal slaughter one will have a chance to fully embrace all the values of Arius: there’s everything one can only like in the US death metal. Blasting, full brutal slaughter, many mid paced or even slow, doomy riffs… and riffs, which are not too technical, but often even quite memorable. “Kein Gott” will even surprise you with a doomy, heavy riff, with the keyboards playing some dark tunes in the background. But these songs – also due to the fact they’re all quite lengthy – are all very varied and will never be just a constant blasting all the time through or whatever. And the atmosphere will always be just dark and gloomy as hell. Arius may not really have any unusual riffs and honestly “The Last Suffer” is very typical material for those times, but that doesn’t mean their music was boring and not that good. It is actually completely opposite and I must say that when I listen to it nowadays I really, really like Arius and also can just recommend you all digging this demo out from somewhere and give it a listen as it is truly a great stuff. It definitely is one of those releases, which also deserve being exhumed and re-released on vinyl or CD nowadays. So, please check this band out!

Best song: “Kein Gott”
Final rate: 85/100

Nominon - The Cleansing

 

NOMINON - The Cleansing (DEATHGASM - LP 2012)

Oh, the waiting is over, new album from Nominon has arrived. Surely those Swedish motherfuckers have gained a lot of my respect for the music they’ve been delivering through the last 15 years, I already collected quite much of it on vinyl, so even if “The Cleansing” is only the fifth full length album of Nominon, it feels like we’re dealing here with old veterans already (who they probably are, if you think that Perra Karlsson played already with Suffer, Altar, In Aeternum, etc) and surely the time went fuck knows how quickly since I’ve been bulldozered by the awesome “Recremation” LP for the first time. Surely it may be due to the fact that Nominon in the time between the previous LP “Monumentomb” and “The Cleansing” did not waste any opportunity and time, releasing three split 7”EPs and one which they did not share with anybody. So they were always there, but the hunger for the new album was strong, especially after “Manifestation of Black”, which was just a KILLER EP!!!! At the same time I can say that “Monumentomb” was not my favourite album, so I hoped that the new effort will be better than this.

Believe my words, “The Cleansing” doesn’t disappoint. Already after I’ve listened to the first couple of songs I felt like this is going to be my favourite release from Nominon. What a strong opening, what a great power and energy is coming out of the speakers, what a fuckin mayhem. It is fast, it is relentless, it feels like you’ve been under the unstoppable fire in the battlefield. This music is so vicious and brutal and what’s more, it has more black metal influence that one would ever dare to expect from Nominon. But I love it. Sincerely, I fuckin do. I knew after “Manifestation of Black” that this EP will be a great proclamation for that Nominon will take no slaves and will really crush everything with the next full length album. And I’m so glad that they didn’t disappoint; what’s more I think they even surpassed my expectation, because – as I already mentioned – not even in my darkest dreams I hoped for such a merciless, fast, malevolent and crushing death metal piece.

“Mausoleum”, as far as I’m concerned, is the song, which I liked most and which really blew my head off instantly. I love everything about this track, but surely I must also point out the riffing in its ending part, where it gets very black metalish – I love it anyway! The atmosphere in it is just supreme, so are the riffs and everything else. This is just a MASTERPIECE of metal of death! Another exceptionally killer tunes would be the LP only "Slaughter the Imposter" (with great old Morbid Angel atmosphere all the way through), “Obliteration” and “Son of Doom”… but on the whole album I can really feel such an incredible passion and a constant stream of lethal energy and violence… there’s no bad song here, no dull moment, everything is perfected and as far as I’m concerned this is complete, perfect record. Even the instrumental title track has its place in the whole and shreds to pieces. Hell, did I already write in another review that Coffin Text’s “The Tomb of Infinite Ritual” is my death metal album of the decade? Now I don’t know what to think hehe!

One thing, which makes hell of a lot of difference between this and all the previous Nominon albums are the vocals. Henke Skoog, who joined the band right after “Monumentomb” was released, is a beast and I really, really like all his vocals. He’s using his throat with no compromise, screaming like possessed, in almost black metal way, but that fits the music perfectly, as in the end it only adds the fuel to the fire and makes the music even more merciless and morbid. Oh, I really wonder now, how would “Monumentomb” sound like with him, instead of with Erik Sahlström, who was the main guest vocalist on that LP. Hmm, obviously it is a bit useless to say “what would happen if…”, as it belongs already to the past, but who knows? Henke Skoog fits Nominon perfectly and that’s the fact. He’s a perfect choice for the current style of this band and I – as a fan - can only applause that choice. And will definitely have to check Eviscerated one day, if only Blood Harvest ever manage to release their vinyl. And that Inverted Cross demo also tempts me incredibly now…

Then the production… did I already mention how great is the sound of “The Cleansing”? It really is powerful as hell, with great, brutal guitar tone and fantastic drumming… Here every fast part sounds like it was about to dismember you and every slower bit is to crush you to the bone. And that artwork of Juanjo Castellano… Absolutely breathtaking! So creepy, so morbid, malevolent and memorable. That vinyl should come together with huge poster of that artwork for fuck sake! So, you see that I absolutely see disadvantages of “The Cleansing”; perfect death metal record.

Standout tracks: “Mausoleum”, "Slaughter the Imposter", “Obliteration”, “Son of Doom”

Final rate: 95/100

Helrunar - Sól

 

HELRUNAR - Sól (LUPUS LOUNGE - CD 2011)

Helrunar… Yeah, I’m not gonna try to hide the fact that I love this band. They belong to the category of black metal bands, which I like most – I mean bands, which play that kind of music with heart and passion and do so, using many atmospheric meanings, not necessarily focusing on the primeval aspects, but rather trying to get out its essence, its true feeling. And do so by playing their music unconventionally, but still in epic, heathen, atmospheric, but savage and furious ways. With all their previous recordings Helrunar gained for me a status of amazingly talented band, one whose music is to be listened to and contemplated, not just played for the fun of it… It is that tension in their music, amazing riffs, great acoustic passages and raspy vocals – all great ingredients, which made such LPs as “Baldr Ok Iss” and “Frostnacht” so successful. For me, if you ask, there’s Ulver’s “Bergtatt”, Satyricon’s early LPs, then maybe two or three another albums like Taake’s “Hordalands Doedskvad”… and then there’s Helrunar. So, after “Baldr Ok Iss” was released I was truly looking forward to hear some more stuff from those Germans and that finally came in the beginning of 2011, when “Sól” album was announced. It turned out that it’s a double album – and to be honest I didn’t know what to think about that. From one hand it must have been a proof that Helrunar was extremely busy and found so many great ideas and songs that they had to put out a double album. And that’s fine for me; I will never have enough of great music, especially from this band! But some hesitation came when it turned out that both parts of “Sól” will be sold separately. One under the title “Sól I - Der Dorn im Nebel” and another one as “Sól II - Zweige der Erinnerung”. Hmm, this is shit. I mean obviously every fan would never consider buying just one of these two CDs; he’ll need to have both, but to sell them separately – especially as, let’s make it clear, Lupus Lounge releases belong to the most expensive stuff out there! – is a bit of crossing the line. It’s like buying a roast dinner, for which you need to pay extra if you wanna have some potatoes and gravy. You cannot have just a roast meat, you need everything. The same is here; you need both parts, but having both parts of “Sól” released separate was just a fucked up decision. Obviously there’s also a diehard version of this album, with both CDs together, with an art book, all limited to 1000 copies… but I’ve never seen one of those anywhere and probably that version was expensive as hell. So, they made us pay a double price for one album, but luckily Helrunar is kind of band, which is worth the money; even if I would prefer this to be sold under one special price.

Both parts of “Sól” come in nice looking digipacks. The artwork in each differs, but each is equally impressing. I can understand why they have also released it as an art book, really, the whole layout plus those photos, which have been used for “Sól” are nothing less, but a real art. I’m not gonna reveal all details of it, you better just buy these albums and look / judge them by yourself, but I can promise you that this looks truly impressive. The atmosphere of these photos is just as cold and disturbing as it is stunning and obviously it fits the concept of the world after an ice age perfectly. Sadly again all the lyrics have been written in German – what is not a problem in itself, as it is a great part of Helrunar style and I love the way Marcel Dreckmann (a’ka Skald Draugir) shrieks his lyrics… German language fits here perfectly, but really some professional English translations would be perfect here. I tried to use a bit of google translate, but mostly it was difficult to understand and sometimes had completely no sense at all; this translating program just sucks.

When listening to “Sól” first I have noticed an amazingly crisp, powerful production of the album. I used to consider Grieghallen Studio as a place, where all the best black metal productions were done (vide Taake’s “Hordalands Doedskvad…” LP), but what Helrunar achieved at Klangschmiede Studio E is a superb sound quality. So powerful, so energetic, so clear, but still savage and raw. It is a perfect combination for such music and I dare to say that with different sound, “Sól” wouldn’t be as good. The drums are like thunders; the guitars have a powerful, great tone and are sharp like fuckin axes. The band sounds amazingly well whether they play fast and aggressively or perform the acoustic passages… It is flawless all the time. Sure, it resemblances the recordings of Secrets of the Moon, but since I can call myself a huge fan of both bands, I have no problem about that.

Musically I guess “Sól” will speak in the language already familiar to all those, who’ve been mutilating their skin when listening to “Baldr Ok Iss” and “Frostnacht”. Helrunar has created style of their own years ago and luckily they don’t feel like changing it too much yet. In many ways though “Sól” seems to be more uncompromising album that the previous ones. Again – and that for me is always the biggest strength of Helrunar music – a lot of accent has been putted on long, instrumental passages. The album is heavily guitar oriented; without keyboards or whatever, only some acoustic guitars will fill up the empty spaces when it is needed. Other than that Helrunar lets the listener to feel the power of RIFF and shows their great ability to paint the pictures / concept with the music, focusing mainly on those instrumental parts, which one can almost compare to some post metal, if you would ever bother. The music is deeply involving, from the start till its very last second; and during this time you’ll hear some exceptionally brilliant (black) metal, in such tracks as “Kollapsar”, “Nebelspinne” or “Ende 1.3” (speaking of “Sól” part 1) and “Aschevolk”, “Rattenkönig” and “Sól” (speaking of “Sól” part 2). Actually I must add that “Sól II - Zweige der Erinnerung” quite often crosses the lines of even more progressive black metal and thus the band may adrift away from their classic heathen black metal style here and there, but for me it never becomes dull and uninspiring. If I was picky, then I would say that “Sól I” made a bigger impression on me, but definitely “Sól II” is not Helrunar’s “Reload”, if you know what I mean (read: don’t treat the second album as the collection of outtakes!). And I also must admit that quite often I feel like Helrunar and Polish Furia have really a lot in common – and I love both bands equally.

Helrunar never fails to create that cold, inhuman atmosphere and never fails to deliver great, memorable, enormous riffs (splendid guitar work!). The music often erupts in your face, only to calm down later… and this dynamic in the music of those Germans, with huge, monumental songs and powerful production are things that would distinguish the phenomenon of “Sól” from all the mediocrity, which has been produced in the past years. I don’t know if “Sól” is a better album that that amazing “Baldr Ok Iss”, where Helrunar perfected their music 100%, but I would prefer not have to make the choice, as both albums are well worth having and being listened to. Definitely “Sól” was an ambitious, emotional project, in many ways it drags attention more than anything else I have heard this year and well… I cannot imagine a self respecting black metal fan not to obtain a copy of this double album. Definitely it will speak to all those, who find a lethal pleasure in the latest recordings of Helheim, Secrets of the Moon, some recent Satyricon, Dornenreich, Furia, as well as Celtic Frost’s “Monotheist”. For me Helrunar released another classic album (albums) and well, I can only recommend it to all those, who deserve that. Because the weak will not bother anyway.

Final rate: 85/100