Pro-Tape limited 100 copies! Comes on pro tape with pro cover.
Azaghal debut album. This one has some influences from Norwegian sound.
Tracks 1 to 4 recorded at Cursed Studio in March 1999.
Tracks 5 to 8 recorded at HellKult Studio in May 1999.
AZAGHAL, Finland's top-selling Black Metal act, unleashes an official re-issue of their legendary Debut album, "Mustamaa”. Out of print world-wide since 2011, this 1999 Satanic Black Metal classic is finally re-released with the original layout meticulously recreated to preserve this early, immortal Black Metal album! One of the longest running Occult Black Metal bands with a vast catalog, including 12 full-length albums, countless EP's and splits, AZAGHAL are = known to every metal fan world-wide.
Performing a more bestial form of black metal in their early years, AZAGHAL's "Mustamaa" exemplifies this approach, which alongside Impaled Nazarene's "Tol Cormpt Norz, Norz, Norz", BEHERIT’s “Drawing Down the Moon” and Horna’s "Kohti Yhdeksän Nousua", cemented the corner-stone of the now hugely popular and infamous Finnish black metal sound. This classic sound, coupled with regular touring, became instrumental in making AZAGHAL one of Finland’s Largest Metal bands!
24 years after its original release, AZAGHAL’s "Mustamaa" is just as impressive and relevant today as it was upon its initial 1999 release!
"Small surprises make AZAGHAL not only a bit more interesting, but also enables the Finnish horde to stand out of the hundreds of DARKTHRONE or MAYHEM copies." ~Legacy: Voice From the Darkside (DE)
“From the first track you can tell it is something special”
Mustamaa was the first album I bought from Azaghal and I still love it. The aggressive, frozen sound and the misanthropic approach were a trademark for this band in the glory days because now, even with good albums, they lost something in grimness and rawness; two very important elements of this kind of black metal.
Here we have a sum of what black metal is about. We can meet obviously Darkthrone influences along with early Hellhammer drums parts and a sort of punk attitude. A track like “Yhta Yon Kanssa” carries inside the completeness of black metal: arpeggios, raw vocals with some clearer as chorus and fast tempo parts with minimal guitars/drums sound. The main important thing for them is grimness made through simplicity and catchy parts.
The main riff on the title track is pure sadness and here we can really see the ability in changing the musical offer in the different songs, passing through depressive metal, to raw black with some folk elements. Each songs has its form with its main, catchy riff and a very simple structure. “Portinvartija” is total Hellhammer worship with punk up tempo sections and distorted bass. Awesome.
The vocals here are one of the rawest things heard in black metal…fantastic. The lead guitar line on “Juudas” is fantastic while “Kosto” shows again old school influences with a touch of primordial thrash/black in the guitars and the tempo. With the final “Viimeinen Taistelu” we can meet some more epic melodies, always a bit suffocated by the black atmosphere and sound.
All in all, an album to admire for sincerity and passion. Even if they were yet a bit bound to Darkthrone they were able to show their skills in this genre and, most of all, their pure madness. Crazy Finnish guys playing raw black metal!
Sample:
