So there's this bug buzz lads, that black metal died, all the classic (or otherwise... "true") fans are all whining "black metal's dead, the new stuff is a poser shit, blah blah blah...". Just a heads up, black metal hasn't died, it has evolved, into more melodic stüff, and hey, after all, ya can't blame someone for wanting money, and the new black metal also sounds really cool, now, apart from this, not even classic black metal is dead, and I'm gonna show you this today, with this album, The Underworld Regime, by a super super-band called Ov Hell. In 2007 Ghaal and King ov Hell of Gorgoroth tried to take over the "Gorgoroth" name to start their own band with that name. In 2009 they lost, and didn't recived credits for the name, so they formed the band "God's Seed", but later the same year Ghaal retired. King ov Hell contaced Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir and revived God's Seed, under the new name of Ov Hell, and guess who helped them make their first album, Ice Dale, Teloch and Frost. I don't know many things about Teloch and Ice Dale, but...Frost? Alongside with King and Shag? Ya have to dig deep to find stüff like this lads, really, really deep! That's the band's story, and it's as black metal as it gets, so stop complaining. Let's start, shall we...
The first song is called Devil's Harlot, and it's 3:23 long. Well the start sounds black metal enough, whiners, it's really fast, really harsh and really heavy. Shagrath kicks in and now it's really intresting, 'cause he doesen't really sounds such classic black metal, I mean, he sounds incredible in Dimmu, but he doesen't fits incredibly well in the classic black metal scene, the closest one I could find to Shag's style is Ghaal himself...more or less. Anyway, at around one minute, the next riff - is - killer! The blastbeat's snares comes at the time with the guitar's palm-muted E's and it's incredibly bad ass. At around two minutes and a half, another part kicks in and it's just incredible, I can't even describe it, it's darn good, the song ends with the main riff and Shag repeating the song's name: cool.
This next song (Post Modern Sadist, 4:56) starts really dark, with a woman singing, but in the middle of this intro, I am pretty sure I heared "Fuck me! Sex!" by another woman. Anyways the song kicks in with a great riff and Shagrath doesen't sounds so strange in this one. The breakdown's in this song make it really colorful, and, might be just me, but this song kind of has an Immortal feeling about it. Anyways, a really colorful song, wich is pretty rare in black metal, imposible to bore you, this song is really good.
We reach track number three, Invoker, 4:26, now with intros like this, I really get the title of the album, all this intros have this urban horror movie feeling about them. Anyways, this intro is shorter than the one in the last song and the song basically blasts off in a heavy riff + Shag screaming, the riff is pretty apocalyptic in feeling. This song kind of has a chorus, with a nice riff, and this "INVOKEEEER" screaming, and some things in between. I basically love King's backing vocals in this one. They are absolutley awsome. And around three minutes there's this riff that kind of reminds me of melodic death metal, that's a little minus to the song, but the riff is really, really short lived, so it doesen't matter really much. But at the end either a guitar or a keyboard (more like a guitar) kicks in with a melodic part, it isn't to bad, it is pretty nice, I wouldn't have minded it without, though, but it's nice like this as well.
Track number 4, Perpetual Night, 3:36 is what I call a black metal song. King's vocals are very pronounced in this one, wich I love, Shag also kind of redeemed himself with pretty nice vocals. The riffs have black metal written all over it, a really straight to the point song, pretty harsh one. It isn't really colorful, though, and for people a bit newer to black metal and people that don't like black metal it might sound a bit repetitive because of that. One thing to really notice is King's vocals wich are really apocalyptic and sound very, very good.
The fifth song is called Ghosting and is pretty long, it's 6:16, maybe due to the fact that it has a lower BPM (it's a bit slower). The opening riff is really dark and sad, it doesen't matter it isn't fast and Shagrath's singing really fits very well with this slow style of songs. This song is pretty repetitive, but it's pretty good considering the fact that it's the first one in wich Shag doesen't sounds really strange. I also, didn't really noticed Frost in this one, unlike the other songs. The guitarists though, should have a beer, 'cause they own the song (King as well, 'cause he wrote it.).
66666666666666... sorry xD, 6th track is Acts of Sin, also not really short song, 5:19. It seems the quality of the recording has lowered a bit, wich is something I was wondering about the other songs, the quality seemed just a bit to high. Also, I like Shag in this one, too, his accetable, yet it seems that all the energy he put in Dimmu's "In Sorte Diaboli" (wich is an incredible album) left him with nearly no energy whatsoever. I still like his lower vocals, though, and this song has a pretty good deal of them, not to mention he sounds nearly as good as in the last song and Frost did an amazaing job in this one, he's the one with the beer on this song. Also nice ending with suffering folk (or maybe it's just a suffering woman, I don't get it) and then a laughing old woman sound, pretty nice.
Song number seven: Krigsatte Faner, 3:54. This song is pretty basic, Shagrath returned to his strange vocals, and has added up some double-layered vocals and the guitar even has some solo-like parts, that pretty low in volume, some people might not even notice them at first. The second lead riff will surely be noticed, though, as it is higher in volume. Frost did very good in this song, not something to blow you away, but it's good. This is the lowest rated song of the album as of yet (rated by me, so it's my opinion, it isn't a law or something), let's se how the last song turns out.
The eight song, also the last one, is called Hill Norge, it's 5:46 and starts pretty nice, with more urban horror movie noise, that changes power from left to right if you listen with your headset. This is another pretty slow song, wich means Shag is pretty acceptable and I got to say the main riff is darn nice. I have to say, I am not a fan of how Shagrath writes lyrics, his not even old but he thinks his some legend now because of Dimmu Borgir and started going down the hill. Anyways I like the music side of this song, it's really great, I like slow-ish black metal songs, they always seem so colorful, even if they are repetitive. I got to give it to King for this song, he wrote it flawlessly (apart from the fact that his vocals are too awsome for describing words).
If you like black metal you will definetly like this, I like it, it's not one of my faves but it's really, really good. It would be a dream if more people would be inspired by this and start a Third Wave of
Black Metal. This album is worth the bucks for any black metal listener, it is really tough, and it isn't really repetitive, it's very tehnical and colorful, with a tiny bit more recording quality than most black metal albums, but not too much. I would love a third black metal wave with this caracteristics. Here's some samples:
Post Modern Sadist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8azw4E2icw
Perpetual Night: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZYx8VWuPng
Ghosting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KoBBoWEKeU
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