Negator – “Old Black”
This album begins with “Science of Nihil” which has some real, traditional, true blue black metal riffing, really tight, blasting drumming and the traditional vocals, that like all traditional black metal vocals, fundamentally means old Bathory. This is a really good beginning. “Free Bird” begins and it’s obvious that the first song was no accident. Song number two features those spiral riffs weaving in and out. The third song, “Der Infanterist” is cool, too. Alright, well, we got a winner here. From then on, this just gets more interesting. “Interludium”, a nice, quick, cold melodic mini-song leads off into “Katharsis”, another solid number, which has this cool beat in the middle that is infectious. Funny thing, this is as “grim” as “grim” gets, but it’s very memorable without being melodic, always a good thing. “Vernunft 1.0” begins with an odd bass line, before heading into some blast and stop, and blast-and-repeat pattern that makes this song another interesting number. This is followed by “In the Unholy Halls of Eternal Frost” (They play black metal, huh?), another cool, spiral and blast attack of a number. Again, this is not a monotonous song because it seems to change rhythm in the blink of an eye and it has another of those weird, catchy, odd guitar riffs placed in the middle that give the song a twist. Before you know it, it’s on to “Renegation”, the flagship on this album. It’s got a whole lot of speed, as well as time changes. The song is characterized by blasting speed mediated by quick but effective moments of quieter moments. Considering that the song is eleven minutes long, this is a very good strategy. The whole album is some 38 minutes long. I also liked the fact that this is not garage black metal at all. The sound is basic, but tight and sharp. They do not list a website, so go to www.magickrecords.com