In a technical and songwriting sense, this album really lacks complexity, depth and creativity, yet it still goes down as one of the all time classics in the minds of black metal purists. The score I give this album may seem generous, but I give it based on how well it achieves what it obviously sets out to do; sound extremely raw, dark, evil and hateful. The tinny production contributes largely to this, and so do the vocals, which go down as some of the best black metal raspy screaming I've heard. It really hits the spot and suits the flow of the music. The lyrics of the last four tracks of this eight track album are written by none other than Varg Vikernes himself, so this may interest a few people even though they're in Norwegian. The album took me a fair while to appreciate due to its rawness, but what matters is that I appreciate it for the atmosphere it sets out to convey. I still feel that tracks six and seven are two of the most boring and repetitive songs I've heard, and there's no real excuse for such lack of creativity. A couple of other songs are a bit average, but pass in terms of diversity, whereas tracks 3 and 5 I see as very well written, haunting songs. It's all a matter of taste really.

This review is credited to:
Julian Forbes