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Neetzach > True Servants of Satan > Reviews
Neetzach - True Servants of Satan

Misanthropic Blast From The Past - 65%

Str8Hate, November 14th, 2006

It seems that the life of Gidim Xul has been infested with a series of unfortunate events. This, after all, should not come as a surprise given his ancient Sumerian name (Gidim Xul) which refers to the sleeping warrior spirit that's summoned by a Necromancer. Since the age of 13 he has been immersed in the occult scene in Norway. Immediately after the band was formed (under the name of Sworn), the other band co-founder commits suicide (which wasn't uncommon back in the early 90's) and abruptly puts the band on hold. The band re-forms for a brief period when Dolgâr (Steffen Simenstad) and Dirge Rep (Per Egrid Husebø) decide to join Gidim Xul, along with Sir Vereda (Gehenna founder). But it's not before long when Sir Vereda gets into trouble with the law and even tries to involve Gidim Xul in an alleged murder charge. Later on, a few other musicians joined but weren't any good and were placed as session members. Then Gidim Xul joins a university in hope that he might find inspiration in the knowledge of things. He even gets drafted into the army for some time. In 1997, he almost re-froms the band but also runs into difficulties with finding talented musicians. In 2005, Neetzach was finally reformed after Dirge Rep approaches Gidim Xul (it's not entirely known who approached whom in this regard, given Dirge Rep's incredibly busy schedule with other bands) and talks him into uniting the band. A little later Vrangsinn (Daniel Salte) joins the line-up.

And in this way, after more than a decade, Neetzach becomes a partial all-star band (yet one without a debut album). So Gidim Xul starts excavating some of the unrecorded material he had in store since the last decade. After a year of hard work the result is a 46 minute album of paramount misthanropy; "True Servants Of Satan". Unbeknownst to many people, Gidim Xul used to play synth for Gehenna during its earliest days. He even employed some synth material in his 1995 demo. But that was more than a decade ago. Neetzach is about different things now. This debut has the atmosphere of old school Black Metal, taking its listener through a journey to the obscure era of the 90's. The music is raw and primitive, and there is absolutely no use of keyboard synths or any type of melody, making this release a genuine misanthropic blast from the past. The lyrics for "True Servants of Satan" are (according to Gidim Xul himself) based on life experience and occult rituals. He admits (in a recent interview) to having written the lyrics for “True Servants of Satan” back in 1993. Yet, most of the lyrics are shallow and perhaps only meaningful to Gidim Xul. Most of the riffs are taken from rehearsal tapes from 1993 - 1997. Other riff compositions are new. It also comes to no surprise that this album has been recorded/produced at ANP (Another Norwegian Product) Studios, given the fact that Gidim Xul is a co-owner of this label himself. It would have probably been a little hard to convince any foreign big names to sign on this one. This is not to say that Neetzach's Black Metal isn't competant. It's just that their Black Metal is too True Norwegian to fit the tastes of the average Black Metal fan. ANP Studios were also responsible for producing Secht's 2006 debut, most likely because both Dirge Rep and Vrangsinn are the main band founders. But the interesting thing is that both Secht's and Neetzach's LP debuts were released on the same date, namely 06/06/06.

The music on this debut is grim and cold just as expected by any True Norwegian Black Metal band. The tempo varies from song to song but usually ranges from slow to mid-paced. It is very similar to the tempo which Darkthrone employs in their songs. Most songs lack any emotion, only a couple are structured decently. Apparently, Gidim Xul isn't a very talented musician. If he had been talented in using multi-instruments he would've recorded the debut himself, performing on all instruments in his studio. But he needed extra firepower. So, you aren't likely to find any special songwriting skills on this one. However, "True Servants Of Satan" is the sort of release that grows on you the more you listen to it. One only hopes that this debut isn't just a collaboration paying homage to the old comradery between Dirge Rep and Gidim Xul, and that they will get back in the studio to record new material despite their busy schedules. This album can be considered as a classic, bringing back nostalgic memories from the past, and it can be easily passed as rubbish. If you want to test your Black Metal comprehension, give this album a spin ... or two.

Favored tracks are "Belial" , "The Demon That Opened My Grave" , "True Servants of Satan" (title track).


Originality ........... 12
Musicianship ....... 13
Songwriting ......... 12
Production .......... 18
Lyrics ................. 10
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