Hm no. We haven't got anything deign of note in here this time. When I first read the words black metal on the promo sheet I was already picturing horrible shireking screams and fuzzy guitars but in the beginning of the album this band plays instead a somewhat different breed of Black Metal. It is more traditional metal riffs with lots of reverb and agonizing vocals, which at first sounded interesting enough, with some riminiscences of early Celtic Frost etc. Let's say, it sounded a bit like Black Metal from the eighties. Sadly, things degrade rapidly after a handful of minutes and by song number three the first experiments appear: late Emperor keyboards start spoiling the grim atmosphere with bombastic "cold" melodies. By song number four, the second generation Black Metal sound is here in all its insignificance, with all its clichès of faintly melodic scales and indistinct witchlike vocals. Exactly how all these things are supposed to work together I am not sure, but I can tell you this song "The Journey to the Forest" is horrenous, droning, banal to the point of vomiting derivative black metal with no ideas nor feel. Just background noise shit. By song five you get back to some thrash roots and a bunch of gothic metal dance steps.Things are a bit confusing here, it sounds just like a patchwork of different styles arranged casually on the disc. And the cover art is an agony to look at as well: moon and forest et al. Save for some decent vaguely Hellhammer riminiscent riffs in the beginning, the rest of the album could be discarded easily as "useless".

 

Tracks (6): 1 - The Night of Dokkalfur & Ljosalfur 2 - None Shall Stand 3 - Of What We Have Become 4 - The Journey to the Forest 5 - For all Mankind 6 - Blood Red Heart