By all rights,
Grimbane's debut should be D.O.A. Everything about the record screams "cheesy": lurid artwork, laughable songtitles ("Crush the Set of Beliefs," "Tyrannize Christians," "God Cremated"), ridiculous bandmember pseudonyms ("Barbarous," "Madonna Slayer," "Hedon," and "Sado Butcher" replacing "Sordid" on guitar). The album even has five interludes to its ten songs, a ratio worthy of hip-hop. Yet (and in spite of its probably serious intent) the record is great fun. It evokes old-school black metal in the vein of
Venom and
Hellhammer, but with much more skill. The songs are efficiently fat-free: "Tyrannize Christians" clocks in at a terse 1:41. They're also surprisingly nuanced. "Cauldron of Burning Iron" and "God Cremated" feature gorgeously eerie acoustic guitars. Amid its storming blastbeats, "Unscrupulous Religion" has delicate key modulations, while "Instinct for Iniquity" has unexpectedly complex chords. "Before the First Day" even sneaks in some rollicking Viking metal triplets. The biggest surprise is that the interludes actually work. Without them, the record is merely solid. With them, it becomes dynamic, with soundbites about the insidiousness of religion providing quick (and often thought-provoking) breathers between songs. This record reinvents no wheel -- blasphemous black metal has been around forever -- but it spins it with great brio. ~ Cosmo Lee