Antiphrasis
Gutsfuck

Even though I was sure I was facing a good work (firstly because it was recommended by several people, and secondly because the previous split with Totenburg showed a band with serious skills), I must say that when faced with the artwork, I felt a bit discouraged: you really can’t understand anything, even the graphics of the text are poor. In the booklet, only one text, that of the song "Black Metal": at least you know to gear up for a record of THAT genre.

And yet, it was a bit of a surprise, I must say: the very atmospheric keyboard intro, followed by a martial riff (and very thrash-like) that introduces the second "Might and Knowledge" make the album start really well! At certain points, they sound like Naglfar, at others like Dissection, at others the sonic devastation reaches incredibly high peaks: from this point of view the album is very well done, it is quite varied and manages to have excellent melodic insights without losing an ounce of its aggressiveness. Another particular feature is the length of the tracks, slightly longer than usual: only two songs (excluding the intro) are under 5 minutes, but the variety I mentioned just before really ensures the album doesn’t become tedious. The finale is truly a surprise: a short arpeggio accompanied by the "sweet" clean voice of Herr Rabensang, and then Hammer of Sorrow (the drummer) proves to be a real damn machine... I think I've rarely heard such "human” blast beats at this speed.

The third track ("Raping The Angel") opens with a riff that could have easily come from Skolnick’s strings—recording aside—only to unfold into a black metal frenzy that, once again, brings Naglfar to mind, with four balls each, throwing us in midway with a slowdown and a pseudo solo that is simple yet effective.

The album then continues to flow between shuffling and cadenced tempos paired with crazy bursts of pure black metal intransigence, riffs in which the keyboard even pops out (!), thrash riffs and solos, and, as already mentioned, melodic openings that have the merit of making the work varied without that sense of being "neither fish nor fowl"; a good mix of Naglfar, Dissection, Slayer (in some points, just a shade), and early Mayhem.

p.s. in my opinion, the best song on the album is the title track, an incredible burst of under 3 minutes in which all the album's rage is condensed.