The 3rd and the Mortal
Sorrow
Head Not Found
1994 CD
Obscure mid-90s metal from Norway that's NOT black metal. "Okay whatever it's death metal then, right?" Nope!!!
This is actually a very peculiar brand of foid metal, before this type of thing became all "symphonic" and "Dutch." I'm struggling to think of a similar artist. The Gathering comes close but of course they didn't sound like this until later on. It's a very specific style of melancholic doom metal with clean female singing. A twenty-minute four-song EP, there's no filler here whatsoever.
The guitar work is fascinating, layered into a lush patchwork (there are three guitarists here). Kari Rueslåtten has a beautiful soprano voice. Smooth and powerful with no real attempts at sounding overly "operatic." While the three bonafide metal tracks are quite strong, my favorite song here is the acoustic folk title track. A tender, fragile melody, these lyrics would sound downright cheesy if the delivery wasn't so convincing. Speaking of lyrics, there's a mix of English and Norwegian on here. I love that shit.
A very memorable early effort. Quite rare now too.
Rating: 4/5
Reviewed: 11/29/25
The 3rd and the Mortal
Tears Laid in Earth
Indie Recordings
1994 2021 CD
Dreamy silky ethereal metal that predates (and sounds distinct from) all the more purposeful "wave/gaze" types. It's cliché to say this, but this is best listened to as an album as opposed to picking out individual songs. Perfect for chilling out on a hazy December day and just letting the sound crash over you. If I had to pick a best track I'd say it's "Shaman" which has no real lyrics but fantastic layered vocals and delicate synth lines. There are some weaknesses. The band falls into the classic 90s pitfall of ending with an overly long song (18 minutes!), which arguably overextends the length of the album as well (66 minutes!). Sometimes lyrical delivery is a bit cheesy in that "Euros singing in English" type of way, and the lyrics can be awkward in general (I mean, there's a song called "Song"). Overall hard to nickpick this one though.
Originally released in 1994, I have a reissue on Indie Recordings (weird name for a Norwegian metal label). They changed up the sleeve design a bit but the album is otherwise intact. No remastering or bonus tracks or any other bullshit. Love to see it!
Rating: 4/5
Reviewed: 12/02/25
The 3rd and the Mortal
Nightswan
Voices of Wonder
1995 CD
Their second EP overall, and a rather awkward transitional one. Still rooted in doom metal (which they'd eventually abandon), the band is now flirting with more pronounced experimental and ambient influences. As in, they're dropping much of the heaviness. The bookends here are solid, albeit completely different, with one being an epic ten-minute monolith and the other a sentimental instrumental outro. Sadly, the middle two tracks are unfocused and dull. I can scarcely recall them at all. New singer though: she sounds great, not so dissimilar from the original. Far from an essential release, this serves as a clumsy bridge between the first two full-lengths.
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed: 12/24/25
Absu
Barathrum: V.I.T.R.I.O.L.
Osmose Productions
1993 2020 CD
First full-length album by the masters of mystical magickal occult metal, hailing from the depths of...... Plano, Texas. Think this one's all about Sumerian mythology because why the hell not.
In contrast to the band's earlier material, they're now joined by "Proscriptor McGovern" here. He's the vocalist and drummer, and a really exceptional drummer at that. This makes Absu one of those "drum bands" for better or worse. I'd say this is 50% death metal and 50% black metal. Like Darkthrone meets OSDM. Most of this sounds like a slurry to my ears, especially the back half which is almost entirely filler. It all clicks by pretty quickly; the entire album is only thirty minutes (well, my reissue is of course saddled with shitty live bonus tracks). Never was a HUGE fan of these guys, but they certainly got better after this one.
Standout track: "Descent to Acheron." Those operatic female guest vocals are awesome. I'm a huge fan of women.
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed: 11/29/25
Absu
The Sun of Tiphareth
Osmose Productions
1995 2020 CD
Alright we're getting somewhere now. This is much cooler than the debut. The death metal elements are all but dropped (good, they never quite nailed that sound) and thrash elements have been added, giving this a sort of epic Viking storytelling Bathory vibe. Case in point: the excellent "Apzu" which weaves a complex narrative for eleven minutes, juxtaposing Proscriptor's snarls against earnest (but hilarious) falsettos and once again some lovely/creepy female singing. There are some serious groovy riffs throughout the album, and some clever use of (synthesized?) folk instruments. The fantasy nerd lyrics are also pretty fun, worth reading.
I can't bring myself to rate this any higher though, due to some awkward meandering segments and a seriously dull cover song. This 2020 reissue is an alternative mix, with a slightly altered track order and the removal of an instrumental interlude track, replacing it with a more traditional metal song from a V/A compilation. I don't think it matters too much though.
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewed: 11/29/25
Absu
The Temples of Offal / Return of the Ancients
Dark Descent Records
2015 CD
This is classified differently depending on where you look. Is it a reissue of Absu's 1992 EP with demo tracks tacked on as a bonus, or is it an EP/demo compilation? Who knows! I'll go with the latter.
This is actually pure death metal, not too surprising given the original 1991 recording dates. Very reminiscent of Suffocation. The EP tracks are the best. Comically fast, but the guitar riffs turn to sludge beneath the flurry of drums and growls (both a bit too high in the mix). The demo stuff is (obviously) much rougher. Absolute potato quality recording. Not a terrible little assortment here, but a lot of this goes in one ear and out the other. And CDs like this are really collector's items more than anything. Would have been cool (maybe) to hear a whole album in the style of the EP, but of course Absu changed their sound drastically after this.
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed: 11/10/25
Anathema
The Crestfallen EP
Peaceville Records
1992 2025 CD
I remember hearing this for the first time back in the 90s. The way I felt... well, maybe it's how boomers felt when they heard Black Sabbath for the first time. Feels like the reputation of The Crestfallen EP has fallen in recent years. Maybe this was due to it being out of print, at least as a standalone CD, for decades. Anyways, that's too bad because this is top-tier death doom metal (or metal period). Perhaps the recent (2025) repressing will bring it back into the fray.
The first two tracks are essentially perfect, the platonic ideals of how death doom metal should sound. Dreary, with a yearning evoked by the shimmering guitar leads. Some absolutely sublime riffs here, and Darren White has an excellent voice. Eschewing the more standard death growls he's instead moaning and lurching and spewing forth every line. Really convincing stuff. There's a female-fronted acoustic interlude -- a throwaway time-killer on a stereotypical metal record, this one's absolutely beautiful. Brilliantly produced, this girl's voice sounds like it's traveling enveloped in mist, across a still moonlit lake. Closing tracks are more standard (for both the band and genre), big wretched chuggers. But very well done. The reissue has a couple of bonus tracks of crummy demo quality, one of which is a primordial version of a proper track. The inclusion of these doesn't really sway my opinion one way or another.
Essential.
Rating: 5/5
Reviewed: 10/09/25
Anathema
Serenades
Peaceville Records
1993 2003 CD
The debut full-length by the British doomsters. Serenades is sandwiched between two superior EPs, and ya know what, maybe this should have been an EP as well. They really struggled to squeeze out a proper album here (even the earliest vinyl pressing feels too long and disjointed despite being "only" 42 minutes).
Which isn't to say this is a "bad" album. It isn't... but it's absolutely carried by four songs while the others flounder. Three of the "decent" tracks sound like the Crestfallen material -- actually, one is a rerecorded song -- with a notable addition being the inclusion of hazy Casio keyboard chords. Then there's "Sleepless" -- it kicks ass but stands out like a sore thumb. More of a gothic rock (not metal) track, it's uptempo with some tasty pinch harmonics and relatively "clean" vocals. A fantastic composition, but it feels odd stuck in there among the plodders. There are no less than three "interlude/outro" type tracks. While "Scars of the Old Stream" is almost charmingly lethargic, the others aren't especially compelling, and this time the female-fronted ditty has some terribly mixed vocals.
Now, most CD pressings contain an instrumental ambient song. This was the 90s and the most metal thing you could do in the 90s was include unambiguously nonmetal music on your metal album. Ambient is one of the more subjective genres, but I really don't find this track to be, well, anything beyond semi-pleasant background music. Also, it's twenty-three minutes long. Yes, TWENTY-THREE. The particular CD reissue I possess also contains the (improvised) tracks from the rare We Are the Bible 7 inch. And they aren't good. All told, this bastard ends up clocking in at an exhausting 76 minutes. Brutal.
Just a weird album overall. Keeps oscillating between "rules" and "sucks" in a whiplash-inducing fashion. Still mandatory for anyone interested in this band, or the beginnings of this niche genre.
Rating: 3/5
Reviewed: 10/09/25
Anathema
The Silent Enigma
Peaceville Records
1995 2008 CD
First Anathema full-length with the four-piece line-up. Guitarist Vincent Cavanaugh is on vocals now. He sounds like a harsher British Tom G. Warrior, though there are some (borderline) death growls thrown in as well. Keyboards have returned, still a backing instrument but this time with a more orchestral sound. But what I'm really struck by is how damn catchy this album can be. "Restless Oblivion" and "A Dying Wish" are absolute rippers, for instance, not letting up a bit during their respective eight-minute runtimes. And despite being still firmly rooted in death/doom/Gothic aesthetics they're probably accessible enough to pull in your average "hard rock heavy metal" boomer type. The bass tone is completely different here, compared to prior releases: high in the mix, metallic, and as heavy as pee-filled balls. Production is vast and spacey, coinciding with the cover art and liner notes images. I do find the shorter tracks to be on the weaker side. One is called "Nocturnal Emission" and has these weird panting and screaming segments. I mean, come on, what the hell dudes. The bonus tracks are a bit awkward. One is instrumental, which is fine, but it comes right after the proper album's instrument outro, creating a rather extended period without vocals. The other is a wholly unnecessary reworking of "Sleepless" with explosions at the end.
Speaking of this repressing, it's advertised as a "2 Disc Edition" which is technically true but deceptive. The second disc is a DVD of a concert. I gotta be honest, I never watch those things ("I can't watch a man sing a song" -Jerry Seinfeld, Seinfeld, Season 6, Episode 19).
Rating: 4/5
Reviewed: 10/11/25
Anathema
Pentecost III + The Crestfallen EP
Peaceville Records
1996 2014 CD
Pentecost III, the second great early EP by Anathema, is hard to find in its original state (or was, it looks like it was just repressed in July 2025). Much easier to find is a compilation with Crestfallen and Pentecost III squished onto one disc. Seems straightforward enough, right? Apparently not. Some versions have the Crestfallen tracks first, while others are flipped and Crestfallen comes last. Additionally, pressings from 2004 and 2014 (like this one) remove the final two tracks from Crestfallen and replace them with different earlier versions of the same songs, from a super-obscure 7 inch from 1992. The quality of these tracks is pretty dodgy and the vocals are downright NASTY. And why are they here? Was the band/label claiming that these are actually the definitive versions of these two songs? It wasn't done for space issues (ie: to keep the CD under 80 minutes), so why? I've never found an exact answer. I won't say anything else about the Crestfallen material. I wrote about it earlier, it rules, though it isn't all properly represented here, moving on...
Pentecost III is the final collection of Darren White material, and it also sounds different from anything else Anathema has recorded. It's got some massive thicc ass songs that all follow a similar formula: slow/quiet rambling opening, gradual build-up, big climax. This is done to great effect in both the searingly heavy opening ("Kingdom"), as well as "We, the Gods" which explodes into this Maiden-esque style of galloping. Incredible stuff. Darren White's vocals are a bit off here -- it sounds like he's actually attempting some semblance of singing. Apparently the band wanted to go in a more "singing" direction and didn't like how he sounded which is why he was kicked out after this was recorded (at least that's what I've heard from a very reliable source [the internet]). There are a couple of weak musical moments too, irrepsecptive of the vocals. A few dull riffs here and there, and a rather useless instrumental tucked in near the end. Holistically pretty awesome though.
Rating: 4/5
Reviewed: 10/10/25
Anathema
Eternity
Peaceville Records
1996 2003 CD
A big change in Anathema's style. Here they're playing, uh... well RateYourMusic tags this as both (no adjectives) doom metal and gothic metal, which I guess is accurate enough. But there's a lot of 70s progressive rock influence mixed in here. An extreme metal band can't play extreme metal forever, that's the rule.
Immediately noticeable is the big inclusion of keyboards. No longer relegated to ambiance behind the guitars, the keys (played by a session musician who would later join the band) take center stage in several of these tracks. Lush dreamy soundscapes, they conjure up a floaty spacey sentiment -- the album cover really nails the intended atmosphere here. The faster heavier "most metal" songs are best ("Angelica" and "Eternity (Part I)" most notably). There's a cover of Roy Harper's "Hope" which is incredibly cheesy but still likable. The album falters most when the band slips into slower, introspective stuff. It just drags, and the latter half of Eternity is full of this. Another issue is Vincent Cavanagh's vocals. The dude is actually attempting to "sing" now and he sounds super unsteady. He also has one of those "extremely British" voices that can get grating, especially during the spoken word parts.
My reissue has three bonus tracks and they all kind of suck. Two are middling acoustic renditions of a couple of tracks that were already among the weakest. The other is a live (ugh) version of "Angelica" but it sounds like whatever device was capturing audio was placed among the crowd as opposed to on stage. I'm being very literal with my rating here; ignoring the bonus tracks I enjoy about 60% of this.
Rating: 3/5
Reviewed: 11/23/25
Anathema
A Vision of a Dying Embrace
Peaceville Records
2022 CD
A Vision of a Dying Embrace is Anathema's final(?) release. Arriving in 2022, it's a live album, with said live show taking place way back in '96. This has actually been released before, in audiovisual format, as a VHS tape(!) in 1997, then on DVD as a bonus bundled with reissues of The Silent Enigma. Said DVD is included here as well, but disc one is the definite audio-only CD version of the concert.
Live albums generally aren't anything special. The best stand out by having remixed or extended versions of a band's best songs. But the average live album is simply "the songs, but worse." Which is what this basically is. The sound quality is kind of ass, and the track listing is just okay. It's got some new (for the time) songs, blended with some older ones from the Darren White era, but NOTHING from Crestfallen which is a huge bummer. "We, the Gods" has been chopped in half, the entire build-up excised. Another bummer. As an encore the band plays "666" which was a shitty joke song no one ever liked. The material from The Silent Enigma sounds the best and freshest (of course). But yeah, this is mostly skippable.
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewed: 11/23/25
Ancient Wisdom
For Snow Covered the Northland
Peaceville Records
1996 2022 CD
Man I got Mandela Effect'ed hard by this one. I could have sworn it was called From the Snow Covered Northland. But alas...
The debut of Ancient Wisdom is something of an atypical 90s Swedish BM release. It's not blasting "Norsecore" and while certainly "melodic" it's a far cry from charging guitar hero music à la Dissection. This is mid-tempo comfy BM, as serene as the nature scene depicted on the cover. Incredibly nostalgic in vibes and aesthetic, this is the kind of thing to listen to while playing Fourth Edition Magic: The Gathering or an old WRPG. While certainly a "nice" and "good" listen there are unfortunately only a few standout tracks, the best being "Through Rivers of the Eternal Blackness" which builds up and fades out beautifully. This particular reissue contains a second disc with all the band's demo tracks. Pretty cool but also redundant, as a lot of this was rerecorded for the album proper.
One of the few old black metal bands to not use pseudonyms for the band members. You look in the booklet and there's a dude all decked out in spikes and corpse paint and surrounded by fog and then he's just called Fredrik Jakobsson lol.
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewed: 10/01/25
Arcturus
Aspera Hiems Symfonia
Prophecy
1996 2022 CD
Synth-drenched extraterrestrial black metal by way of Norway. Considered something of a side project supergroup as the members here also grace(d) Ulver, Borknagar, Covenant, Mayhem, and many more. Excellent vibes here, with the aforementioned Covenant probably being the closest comparison. Huge symphonic atmospheres with progressive/folk guitar melodies and some juicy solos. This dude "Garm" from Ulver has a neat voice, with oddly legible screens. There are also some decent cleans and even some oddball backwards vocals. The impeccable drumming ties it all together. Bass could be louder, and I think it is beefed up on this remaster, though I don't expect much fancy bass work in my BM. I will say this is a bit frontloaded, as the first three tracks really stand out among the bunch. Some truly raucous and headbanging stuff in the opener; absolutely rips.
Weird how the Prophecy release has album art that's different, yet so similar to the original. Both are beautiful. No bonus tracks or any other bullshit added to this to beef up the runtime. I appreciate that.
Rating: 4/5
Reviewed: 09/27/25
Arcturus
Constellation / My Angel
Prophecy
2022 CD
Early works from the "spacey" black metal wizards. This compilation combines two early EPs, with the typical reverse chronology (the 1994 tracks play before the 1991 ones). The Constellation material is a bit redundant, as all four tracks would go on to be rerecorded for the band's debut full-length. Still, it's interesting to hear them here in their primordial (and bassless) form. The mix is a bit odd, with keyboards mogging every other instrument. As for the My Angel material, it sounds like a completely different band! A kind of murky slurry of death, black, and doom with some creeping avant-garde tendencies. A somewhat difficult listening experience, to be honest.
Always cool to see old metal demos and peripheral content rereleased. This is all far from essential, but engaging nonetheless.
Rating: 3/5
Reviewed: 09/27/25
Assück
Misery Index
Sound Pollution Records
1997 CD
One of the most revered deathgrind albums. I love how this is fifteen minutes but considered a full-length. Engineered by death metal master Scott Burns, so you know it's gonna sound good. Meaty but with a DIY crusty coating. Guitar and bass cranked to the same volume, locked in a battle for dominance. An absolute hurricane of blast beats. Vocals are monotone growls and unwavering in their ferocity. Lyrics are political but abstract rather than preachy. Gotta say, most every track sounds just like the one that precedes it, but I dig the vibe.
Still don't know what "Assück" is supposed to mean and I'm too scared to ask.
Rating: 4/5
Reviewed: 12/24/25
Cadaver
Hallucinating Anxiety
Listenable Records
1990 2025 CD
OSDM from Norway of all places. One of the very few notable 90s Norwegian death metal bands, alongside Molested (being into death metal means you discuss bands called "Cadaver" and "Molested" with a straight face). The release history of this one is pretty odd. Prior to 2025 the only way to get this on CD was as a split with Carnage (yes it was a massively long split of two full-lengths, with a Cadaver track omitted to keep it under 80 minutes). This 2025 remastered version of Hallucinating Anxiety has a reordered tracklist, plus new (honestly terrible) cover art. The original cover showed a picture of my attempts at cooking (hahaha hehehe okay that's enough....).
I'm surprised by how non-thrashy this sounds. It's more British/grind influenced, with the average track clocking in at under three minutes. An absolutely raw and merciless experience, it makes for a hard listen. Even with the new mixing, guitars are a buzzing slurry, with the incessant tremolo picking plus an occasional decent groove. Drumming is fast but somewhat sloppy and all over the place and the vocals are "brutal" in a way that isn't especially pleasing -- muffled and faraway sounding. Ostensibly the recording was split across a couple of different (1989 and 1990) sessions, but most everything sounds the same.
Rating: 2/5
Reviewed: 12/13/25
The Candyland Carcrash
The Candyland Carcrash
Fountainhead Records
1996 7"
One of the best emo 7 inch records of all time. A bridge between the classic Indian Summer style of emocore and the screamo that would blow up in the following few years. Vocals are very unique with two contrasting styles: high-pitched screams plus these odd clean(-ish) shouts with a "megaphone" distortion. Guitars alternate between twinkles and crashes, with some great poppy hooks bubbling up from time to time. Production is just assy enough to make this sound like it was recorded in a basement but not so bad that it detracts from the experience. There are three tracks, with the one that consumes an entire side of the record being the highlight. Two fast manic parts sandwiching a beautiful (almost twee-ish) spoken word segment.
There's a strange layer of mystique about this record too. In addition to the band being obscure as hell, the record sides aren't labeled as A or B or 1 or 2 or whatever, so the track order (and song names) are a bit of mystery, with every mp3 rip labeling things a bit differently. I've got a physical copy but the liner notes are of no use: rambles in an absolutely unintelligible font. Anyway, fantastic record, hard as hell to track down!
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewed: 09/27/25
Cannibal Corpse
Eaten Back to Life
Icarus Music
1990 2010 CD
Yup it's Cannibal Corpse. A "meme" band back in high school, with their lyrics and art generating both chuckles and horrified stares alike. I was never SUPER into these guys, who always played a more straightforward species of DM as opposed to the "weirder" variants I find more appealing. Case in point, I didn't even bother to check out their debut until 2025, some 35 years after it was released (speaking of that, this was reissued in 2025, but the copy I received from Amazon is a 2010 Argentine pressing... dafuq...).
Being a 1990 death metal album, this is really more like death-thrash. Some really solid riffing, though the occasional solos aren't especially enticing. These guys were always fairly talented musicians, and it's apparent from the debut. Chris Barnes' vocals are at their weakest here though. One-note and repetitive, and not meshing with the riffs especially well. One of the earliest and "best" examples of "Cookie Monster" vocals. Lyrics exist in ample supply, downright rambling in delivery, and are rarely repeated. They're gory and stupid, but not as sadistic as those found in the later Barnes albums. The first song is about a guy who purposefully causes a car crash (again, dafuq).
I like how the zombie guy on the cover is wearing tight 80s blue jeans.
Rating: 3/5
Reviewed: 12/13/25
Carpathian Full Moon
Serenades in Blood Minor
Peaceville Records
1994 2025 CD
Always heard of this described as a sort of black/doom hybrid, which led me to believe it might sound like (early) Bethlehem or Katatonia, but nope. This has Ancient Wisdom vibes, mid-paced, melodic, almost "easy listening" black metal. While rarely beautiful, this is "pretty" music with a dedicated keyboardist and soft reedy screamy vocals. Hard to differentiate one song from the next (save for the shitty track with clean vocals and movie samples), but the atmosphere is pleasing.
Rating: 3/5
Reviewed: 12/13/25
Cigaretteman / Discount
Cigaretteman / Discount
Suburban Home Records
1996 1998 7"
Extremely fun little split. This is how I want my pop punk to sound. Short songs, catchy riffs, cozy DIY production. The female vocals (both bands) are a huge plus. The fact that one band is Japanese and is called "Cigaretteman" is also a plus. Looks like I have a reprint as the original was on an obscure Japanese label. Kinda wish this was longer overall, though if it was it wouldn't be a 7 inch now would it??
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewed: 09/29/25
Evol
The Tale of the Dark Dreamquest – Demo Tape 1993 / 1994
Obskure Chaos Distro
2019 CD
Incredibly obscure (I'm sorry, "obskure") release -- compiling this long-defunct Italian black metal band's two 1990s demos -- released on a Brazilian label. Actually, this disc also includes material from the 2000 EP, so it almost contains everything not on their full-lengths, though the 1998 EP songs are omitted for who the hell knows why.
Evol had a weird aesthetic, even for BM standards, combining the corny Nordic pagan-Satanism with Italian Gothic horror and Lovecraft. But how does the music actually sound? Well, the demo tracks suck. The production is (obviously) terrible, with fuzz guitars and vocals way too high in the mix. But the compostions are weak too. Flaccid riffs and too much aimless "atmospheric" keyboard noodling. Though once in a while the keyboardist (who was the lead vocalist / band leader) locks into something cool -- it's been said before that Evol really should have just played dungeon synth and ditched the metal altogether. There's a dedicated female vocalist (called "Suspiria" lol) who is hilariously awful with all these heavily-accented overwrought spoken word parts. Incredibly dated in a way that's almost charming.
I had higher hopes for the closing three tracks, which comprise Evol's final official output. Unfortunately one is a live recording with ASS quality. No one -- I mean NO ONE -- wants random ass live recordings thrown into something like this. Just abysmal. The two songs that follow are actually kind of cool. Almost redeem the whole compilation. Almost.
Rating: 2/5
Reviewed: 10/15/25
Grotesque
In the Embrace of Evil
Dissonance Productions
1996 2019 CD
Teenaged death metal by way of Sweden. While not a truly notable band in and of itself, members of Grotesque went on to form the hugely influential At the Gates. In fact, In the Embrace of Evil also exists as a split with AtG.
I thought this was a complete discography, but it isn't. It's got every song from their Incantation EP, plus some demo tracks, plus their final two pieces recorded just for this. The order's all mixed up for aesthetic reasons, I guess. Kind of a mess but it works. This is better than I expected. It doesn't sound that much like early Swedish DM (Dismember, Carnage, etc.), as it's more driving and melodic. You can really hear the proto-AtG sound bubbling up in these riffs. Some light thrash and (early) black influences at play too, perhaps with a nod to Bathory at times.
Not quite exemplary enough to be considered a true hidden gem, but anyone interested in exploring the At the Gates discography should start here. Can't say I love the whole "demonic" theme though. Is that a xenomorph on the cover? Why does it have realistic human-shaped genitalia? Why indeed.
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewed: 12/24/25
Hate Forest
The Gates
Folter Records
2001 2023 CD
The contrarian in me wants to rate this higher. But I just can't.
The Gates is the sixth release by Hate Forest (sources differ on what counts as "albums") -- one of their earlier, experimental showings. I guess the "music" contained within is best described literally. Track one begins with the sound of gates ("the gates") opening, and then segues to howling winds and a crackling fire. This continues... for nineteen minutes. Track two ("only" 13.5 minutes now) is a rather hypnotic, albeit extremely repetitive black metal instrumental. Unfortunately, the final four-ish minutes is a repeated sample of a beating heart(?).
Very insular stuff here. Is it good? Not really.
Rating: 2/5
Reviewed: 01/09/26