black vinyl Limited to 550 copies worldwide. Season Of Mist 2016
I'm surprised this album has no reviews yet. Every other LP has some reviews on it, but this one remains untouched for some reason. I'll go ahead and remedy that right now.
Many elitists love to lament the death of the black metal scene after Dead took his own life and Euronymous was subsequently stabbed to death by Varg. They absolutely love the sound of their own voice where they proclaim black metal, the whole of black metal as a genre and identity, died on the hill with those two, but I don't side with those people. They don't like to look beyond what they perceive to be true to realize that Mayhem wasn't the only band that was putting out music worth contributing to the young burgeoning black metal scene at the time. Bands like Tsjuder were one of those bands. Formed in 1993 under a different name before settling on Tsjuder at some point before or in 1995, they released music throughout the mid to late 1990's before releasing their debut Kill for Satan in 2000.
2000 is definitely a little bit far removed from the hustle and bustle of the Norwegian black metal scene's early days and the sound was ever evolving out of the primitive and simplistic days of Mayhem. Black metal was exploring new soundscapes of innovation and creativity with bands like Ulver, Emperor, Burzum, Ved Buens Ende (even though they only released one album), Manes, and so many others. Even bands from other countries were starting to moving forward with their own spins on the black metal sound, expanding on the second wave and kicking and screaming into what would eventually become the third wave of black metal. However, Tsjuder are one of those bands who stuck to their guns of playing the old established second wave style, stubbornly clinging to it like a Satanic Warmaster, Marduk, 1349, or a Carpathian Forest. Filled with plenty of blast beats, tremolo picking, dissonant riffing, sickening shrieks of proclamation of Satan's almighty reign over the world - it's all here and it's happy to stay nestled in the far flung days of the 90's.
I have to admit I'm a sucker for this kind of black metal. While it's not very original, what I love about Kill for Satan is just how passionate it is. It's evil, primitive as fuck, hateful and makes no bones about what it's trying to be. It's not trying to pull any fancy tricks with fancy post-BM experimental electronics or anything like that. It's pure AAA grade Norwegian black metal. The album starts off with a Hellraiser sample, which is perfect for this as it breaks into "The Daemon Gate." This song gives you a brutally accurate representation of what you're in for. The riffs are razor sharp, churning at a breakneck pace with little a break while the bass, while nothing ultimately special or standout, gives the necessary bubbling rumbling low-end to give the riffs that extra bit of burning sting. You won't find much variation in the drums, unfortunately, but I'm not too bothered by this because as I said earlier, this kind of black metal is more of what I'm into. The drums, though, were handled by a guy named AntiChristian, but they sound like they were handled by a drum machine. They don't sound natural. The snare sound especially bad with its plastic thumping, that bothers me because it's all I can focus on then the bass drums aren't rattling like machine gun turrets. It all sounds so fake. Perhaps it's a consequence of the production, which causes the album to sound hollow and thin throughout.
There's admittedly not much variation in the songwriting, either. There are some breaks in the songs with slow parts like in the song "Lord of Terror," but it's so poorly executed. It makes the song feel incredibly jarring and hacked to bits because it ruins the pacing, making songs feel longer than they really are. Thankfully it's not constant, but it happens enough to where it makes you want to check to see if the CD didn't skip to the next track all of a sudden, or you just wonder if the next song started when it actuality, it hasn't at all. You're still on the same song. There are some atmospheric breaks on the album, which is admittedly a relief. There's a whole song with that dark atmospheric tone called "Eternal" and it's one of the betters compositions here. It does break up the relentless blasting and distracts me from the awful noise of the drums.
Overall, I'd say give this album a shot. If you like your black metal raw, cold, evil, and dripping with an aggressive bent from Norway, check Kill for Satan out. It's nothing special, but if you like the black metal stylings of Mayhem, early Immortal, Marduk, or anything the purists would eat up for being "trve" and "kvlt," then this one is for you. Otherwise, you're not missing much.
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