Weltbrand - 2006 - The Cloud of Retaliation

Out of the Netherlands comes this Black Metal horde, with their second fullength. Presented here are eight tracks of mostly fast Black Metal with the odd slower track thrown in for variation plus one industrial sounding interlude and an outro. The sound actually has somewhat of a  eath Metal feel to it.

The vocals sound like a mix between Nimroth, formerly of Cirith Gorgor, Maniac, and early Emperor, with some Aldrahn and Quorthon showing up every now and then.

Musically this reminds me mostly of the Zyklon-B sideproject from the '90ies as well as earlier Frozen Shadows. Not at all a bad combination.

The soundquality is slightly murky and, as with the music presented here, also quite similar to Zyklon-B and Frozen Shadows, and as mentioned earlier with rather a Death Metal approach to it. The vocals are at the front with the guitars and the snare drum quite high in the mix as well. The rest of the drums and the bass unfortunately disappear to a certain extent in the murky production. This is quite good. Released as a limited A5 digi, as well as regular CD.

Standout tracks are "Channeling Black Energy", "Descending of the Black Ash Rain", "...And the Winds Brought Death".

Tuesday October 14 2008, by :Vragh:

Frozen Shadows - 1999 - Dans les Bras des Immortels

Here we have the first album by Canadian Black Metallers Frozen Shadows, an album well worth to check out. Aggressive northern style Black Metal with keyboards that are not used excessively. I find traces of earlier Emperor, Marduk and Ulver as well as Gorgoroth here, but this album actually reminds me mostly of Enslaved's second album Frost, and the vocals are very similar to Grutle's Black Metal vocals on that album.

The music is mostly fast, with the occasional midpaced parts. The soundquality on this album is also very similar to that on Frost. You can clearly hear the drums and the vocals, the bass is a bit muffled and the guitars are slightly in the back of the mix. Some longer tracks are on this album, clocking in at around 8-9 minutes each. These Canadians have actually managed to catch some of the Northern spirit that usually just is not present on so many albums.

Be sure to also check out their recently released second album, Hantises.

Standout tracks are "Dans les Bras Des Immortels", "Au Seuil des Tenebres" and "Lunes Funebres".

Tuesday June 22 2004, by :Vragh: