Fenriz Presents - The Best Of Old-School Black Metal - [Peaceville Records]

2004-08-03

The Norwegian black metal scene has been explored, searched, and anal probed from here to eternity, writers and reporters wrote savage tales of murder, church arson, and other slight pranks done by pale-skinned, anorectic Norwegian youths, seemingly ignoring the music created during that time.
Some of the music should really be ignored, such as the banshee wailings of one guy who is Berzum, who, if had not shot his silly mouth about his hate for anything not pale-skinned and anorectic, would have been forgotten along with his third-grader level keyboards and spoiled brat quasi-singing…

And On the other hand, such important artists arose, as the mythological Mayhem, Emperor and Darkthrone, which have been creating black metal masterpieces, but have mainly received exposure because of their extra curricular activities…

The album, assembled by Fenriz, a long-standing pillar of the black metal genre, features some classic bands that have influenced the creation of the genre, some early efforts by the first European black metal legends, and some newer material such as Natterfrost, a project by Carpathian Forest's leading man, hmmmm... Natterfrost…

Classic bands include tracks from Celtic Frost, Brazil's Sarcofago, Merciful Fate, and Venom, with a rare, and very welcome track from the sadly forgotten Bulldozer, and then there are two tracks from Mayhem and Berzum, whose sole band member murdered one of Mayhem's…strange world indeed…

The madness ends with a track by Bathory, paying homage to the sadly departed Quorthon, one of the true originators of Black metal.

Not an easy listening experience, the sound in most of the tracks would make Colin Richardson put a knife to his throat, but for those with a panache for raw, aggressive, and Beelzebub friendly music, this is a real treat, it's also a must have for any respectable black metal fan who wants to know the true roots from which this blasphemous blackened genre arose.

In Nomine Satanas,

Alon Miasnikov