“Helvete - Det Iskalde Mørket” sounds exactly like the clichéd Black-Metal I thought it would sound like, grim, raw and utterly tiresome.From the black n’ white front cover to the crude production, the second work of Norwegians Throne of Katarsis is fairly loyal to the rigid rulebook of true Black-Metal and doesn’t differentiate substantially from the enormous pile of tedious of Mayhem/Burzum clones that abounds in the underground these days.
Perhaps the greatest weakness of the album is the length of the songs since most of them meander for way too and don’t seem to go anywhere. It’s a whole 55 minutes divided into five songs, where Throne of Katarsis mingle a primitive and minimal instrumentation occasionally trudging at wearily, slow pace with anguished and caustic Black-Metal shrieks. There’s a certain limit for such formulaic, minimal and repetitive type of Black-Metal so whenever these songs reach the four minutes mark I feel an uncontrollable urge to reach for the stop button.
“Helvete - Det Iskalde Mørket” is assumedly directed at those who like their Black-Metal primitive, grim and unpolished so those with a temperament to endure nearly an hour of it, please be my guest and check it out. (4/10)
Band info: www.myspace.com/throneofkatarsis
Label info: www.candlelightrecords.co.uk
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