By 1996, Sweden's fast-growing Black Mark Label had built itself a sizable roster of acts, sizable enough to warrant a label-wide sampler named, appropriately enough, Black Mark Attack. But though the company had quickly achieved success and notoriety thanks to its extreme metal bands (
Bathory,
Edge of Sanity, etc.), this compilation handily proves that Black Mark was a far more diverse and open-minded place. How else can one explain contributions as varied as
Bathory's grandiose Viking anthems,
Necrophobic's straightforward death metal,
Memento Mori's melodic power metal,
Cemetary's spacy goth rock,
Agressor's French-afied thrash, and
Lake of Tears' trippy psychedelic metal? Catch the drift? Perhaps most collectable of all, Black Mark Attack also features an unreleased track by the mighty
Edge of Sanity. A fine sampler for curious new fans. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia