From the Live Bait Recording Foundation comes this ambient industrial project In Death's Throes. The tracks are composed of many layers of sounds, many of which are indiscernible, but create a fair level of dark ambiance. This CD tends to lean more on the samples/industrial side, rather than the atmospheric end. There seems to be a lot of experimentation here creating the sounds, and a certain foreboding aura is captured. This music is best experienced indirectly, as a background ambiance in the right situations. One of the better bands of this type.

     By way of Finland through Northern Heritage Records, Bloodhammer's 'Ancient Kings' new release offers a pretty typical example of modern black metal. There is heard nothing new here unfortunately, although everything is well executed, and it does have a few good moments with a couple of above average songs. Finland is known to produce extremely original bands, like Beherit or Barathrum for example, but I don't find it in this release. An average release of pretty straight forward black metal.

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Hagalaz' Runedance

Urd-That Which Was
[Well of Urd]

     This mini-CD contains two new tracks and three remixes of songs from the previous CD 'The Winds that Sang of Midgard's Fate.' The first song, 'Wake Skadi,' is very pagan/tribal sounding, and carries through quite well, not a disappointment at all to those who enjoyed the previous work. The second track, 'Urd-That Which Was,' isn't too bad either, but lacks a lot of feeling in its repetitive simplicity. The final three remixes butcher the original recordings, sounding like some sort of techno pagan club music! I was very disappointed. Very, very disappointed...

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Dark Funeral

Teach Children to Worship Satan
[No Fashion]

      Although I've never been too big of a fan of Dark Funeral, this five song mini-CD I enjoyed, once getting past the stupid title, of course. The first two songs are new tracks of their own (quite good ones at that), while the last three are covers. Track three being Slayer's 'Dead Skin Mask,' which is done well, sung with traditional black metal vocals. The beginning spoken part sounds kinda off though with the Swedish accent, but a job well done and a good choice cover. Next is Sodom's 'Remember the Fallen,' without a doubt one of Sodom's best tracks from Agent Orange, recreated fairly good here, it would have been a lot better with less screech in the vocals however. Lastly covered is Mayhem's great 'Pagan Fears,' which is done remarkably well. It's truly a great cover, sounding eerily similar to the original vocals at times. Overall, an interesting release worthy of attention.

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Bathory

Juileum volume three
[Black Mark]

     The third compilation of rare material by Bathory. While I enjoyed the first two a lot, this volume three lacks the interesting material of the last two. Personally I'm not a fan of the later Bathory efforts-'Octogon' and 'Requiem' and there is six tracks from these releases. The other tracks are: 'Satan my Master,' which is interesting as it is unreleased until now and from 1984. 'The Lake,' from 'Blood on Ice.' 'In Nomine Satanas,' which is the most interesting song of them all-it's the music from the song 'Bond of Blood' from 'Twilight of the Gods,' however, with different lyrics written in 1987! Next, excluding the tracks from 'Requiem' and 'Octogon' is 'The Stallion,' from 'Blood on Ice.' 'Resolution Greed,' from 1995 unreleased, too new to draw my interest... followed by 'Witchcraft,' another great raw black metal track from 1984. Then 'Valhalla backing vocals multi-track sample.' Another 1995 unreleased track called 'Genocide,' and finally 'God of Thunder and of Wind and of Rain,' from 'Blood on Ice.' Any die-hard Bathory fan cannot do without this due to the old unreleased material.

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Gontyna Kry

Welowie
[Old Legend Productions]

      Gontyna Kry, or 'Temple of Blood,' is a great black metal act from Poland. Raw and semi-melodic with folkish elements, with lots of interesting twists and turns. It is the underground bands such as this that keep black metal alive in the midst of so many trends and worthless bands. Look for their new CD on Battlefield Records entitled "Krew naszych Ojcow."

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Pagan Hellfire

A Voice from Centuries Away
[Self financed]

      From Canada, this is by far one of her grimmest and best. This seven song self-financed CD is solely done by one individual, Incarnatus. It has a definite early 90's vibe to it, which is an obvious plus, back in the day when black metal was still grim and interesting, and great new bands it seemed were being born every day. I was impressed with this CD, although it doesn't necessarily offer anything new, but originality must not always be a goal in itself. It's easy to spot out the strong Burzum influences all around. Many other elements, like symphonic sounding key -based pieces to accoustic are also included. I don't think this will dissapoint many people at all, in fact, it is refreshing and impressive. Very reccomended! For ordering information, contact: incarnatus@hotmail.com

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Corpus Christii

Saeculum Domoni
[Sodie Music]

      From Portugal, this two man black metal band is extremely raw and rather uninteresting. Shrill indecipherable vocals, music which seems to bleed together in an unorganized mess, all of this combined is quite unrelenting. The lyrics focus quite strongly on anti-Christian, Satanic themes. The fourth track, 'Crown Denied,' begins interesting, and grows once again into a fast chaos. When this band isn't trying to play as fast and chaotic as possible this disk actually shows promise, but unfortunately this doesn't last long. Track six has a unique bass-driven sound, which once again is pretty bled of feeling by the ensuing chaos. The potential is definately here and the future will tell if they can break free from the mold.

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Countess

The Shining Swords of Hate
[Barabarian Wrath]

      I long awaited this release, and was somewhat disappointed. Immediately one notices that the ferocious raw vocal style is missing, replaced by a low, distorted, rather incomprehensible style, some of which is done in a strange kind of singing. The music is very atmospheric, unique to Countess in its sound. The great raw melodic guitars and drumming, all of this remains, and is little different from his past releases. This seven song CD (limited to 666 hand-numbered copies) ends with a cover of Bathory's 'The Return of Darkness and Evil.' While this definitely isn't bad, and is worth picking up, it doesn't contain the plethora of raw emotions the previous releases contained. That charged, violent and agonized voice is absent on this release, we can only hope it returns on the next, which is already slated for the future on BW. I recommend trying the previous four releases before this one.

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Fog

Jezabel's Dream
[Bethany Records]

      This CD starts out interesting, with keys, drums and a sort of chanting/singing type vocals and leads into some rather uninspired black death. While not bad , it's not very convincing. This CD is butchered when toward the end of track one they use samples from one of Hollywood's most awful portrayals of wicca/paganism, from the movie 'The Craft.' This is extremely laughable and ruins this band for me. But, for the sake of review I'll continue...Song two contains more chanting type singing vocals (which can be found in the following tracks as well), mixed with more traditional death vocals, perhaps with more time this element could be utilized better by the band, as it's their only semi-unique element. Nothing more to say, but surely it's a terrible sign when bands begin to sample horrible films such as 'The Craft'!

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Welter

The Elder Land
[Berzerker Records/Darker than Black]

      This CD starts out very good, with clean sung vocals, very pagan-traditionally sounding. Song two begins lightly with acoustic guitar, and leads into more clean vocals, which are done very well. Anyone liking Storm or Isengard or the like will definitely appreciate the opening songs. While there is a raw feel to this recording, it only adds to better the overall feel. Song three starts an entirely different sound, black metal, which isn't too great to speak of. The rest of this CD juggles between black metal and cleanly sung acoustic styles. The latter far outshining the first. The last song is 'Mourning Soul' by Absurd, a raw, cleanly sung remake, which is very good as well. While the tracks 1-2 and the cover of Absurd are extremely good, the other tracks in the middle do little for me. It is obvious this is where the talent in this band lies. Recommended!

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