Cacodaemony

The first Haatstrijd release I managed to lay my hands on was the "Live On UVA 3" tape, which primarily contained songs from the band's early demo and split releases - a lumpy mixture of Gorgoroth's aggression and Von's stripped-of-everything musical approach. The band might consider this description a compliment, but for me it was a disappointing first encounter. The "Satansplaag" EP, released a year later, was a modest step forward. Quite possibly founder/vocalist Nachtvorst learned, profited and/or drew inspiration from his then-new bandmates (including members of legendary Dutch cult Funeral Winds). Eventually, Haatstrijd released "Cacodaemony" in 2006 - an album that has written "orthodox" all over it.

"The Ruby Streams Of Demise” is an effective album opener: straightforward and aggressive. Otherwise it's far from spectacular, and that sadly goes for the entire album. For 31 minutes, attitude prevails over musical "enlightenment". Two modest highlights (“A Curse To Conclude” and "Towards The Dusk Of Man") can't prevent the album as a whole from sounding deflated, one-dimensional and just too overly familiar to impress. Not that black metal should necessarily be complicated or innovative - I greatly appreciate simplicity and old-schoolness, but only if an artist consciously goes down that road (anyone remember Darkthrone?). For Haatstrijd, simplicity seems the only road they know, and then creating anything for the ages becomes a serious, if not insurmountable challenge.

Admittedly, given what they did in the years leading up to this album, one couldn't really expect Haatstrijd to become groundbreaking all of a sudden. Notwithstanding the amount of black metal on the outside, "Cacodaemony" gets stale after a few spins, as the actual music is average at best (even by 2006 standards). Whatever progress was made in terms of songwriting was enough to produce a decent EP, but not a full-length album - let alone one that would still garner serious interest years after its release. Haatstrijd had their say, the world moved on - and rightfully so.