Suicide or Be Killed!

A really splendid title this release has and it reflect so very well the quality of the music and how to deal with it. Suicide Or Be Killed!, especially due to the exclamation mark, sound like a request to do something or to expect an incident from happening. Either 'suicide' of the band or killed by the reviews, whose attempt, except for those LLN-fanboys, would be to put the release as well as the band into its right place in the history of the genre; through which its existence finally ends.

It is not actually necessary to debate the music much, because it can easily be done by throwing a phrase into the discussion: Darkthrone. Listen to their black metal 'legendary trilogy' and you know what to expect on the second release by Vermeth. The similarity is striking and appears on a broad scale over the whole length of the album. Maybe The Black Lord Beleth'Rim did not have the money to buy any of the releases of the Norwegian artists or ignored them because from his point of view they were not true enough. Or he is under the impression that no one would give a damn because Vermeth is associated with the LLN scene and a self-proclaimed elitist community would buy every piece of crap thrown out by the bands of this illustrious circle of artists.

Not only do the vocals sound exactly like those of Nocturno Culto, also is the way they are used similar: parts are screamed as a counterpoint to the melody and not following it exactly; just to give one example. The guitars have an icy sound and even though the riffs are quite neat, Total Annihilation - Armageddon, Vermeth simply fails to create something that would give them an identity one could point towards; the same can be said of dynamic, build-up of songs and atmosphere. As this release is basically, taking one idea and squeeze it until nothing more can be gained from it, i.e. all tracks vary little from each other, this album is like an endless repetition, an endless (and pointless) boring time travel for the sake of doing so and not to create something neat and outstanding.

Fans of Darkthrone, see above, might find Suicide Or Be Killed! interesting or purists of the old-school black metal branch; who knows. The music on this release is neat, can be listened to, but is basically nothing more but a clone (sic) of ideas that have been performed before; and better without doubt. Let us all hope the, when reminding of the title, that first the latter is happening, i.e. this album crushed by critics, and than the former, i.e. this band and one of the remainder of the LLN-stuff, put to rest. This album offers no progression and clings to the beloved 'true' form of black metal and desperately thrives for attention it does not deserve. It is like putting a flagpole in the midst of a desert and feeling proud for doing so.

Back again from a long silence is The Black Lord Beleth´Rim of Torgeist, Amaka Hahina fame. Also from LLN fame in the mid 90´s. Now I got hold of this a few months back when it came out in June. I wanted to wait a few months to write a proper and objective review without sounding like a ridiculous fanboy, which I am.

One thing that I instantly noticed was Beleth´Rim´s knack for an eerie and disturbing intro, just like with the previous Vermeth release ´Your Ruin...´. However this intro isn´t on the same creepiness level as on Your Ruin..., Time Of Sabbath and Devoted To Satan. It has almost an eletronic sound to it, somewhat reminiscient of Amaka Hahina but more modern sounding. But after so many years of not hearing anything I was sure of a letdown. Surely this guy will go in the Meyhnach direction and use more clean production. Which I don´t like, especially when your best music was done in raw, lo-fi production. Happily, this was not the case when Suicide Or Be Killed came on. The production still had that ¨LLN¨ feel to it. Very raw and distant. To those who know LLN style music you know what I´m talking about.

Also which I liked is the use of a real drummer in the name of Valhgarm who plays for Svartfell and is also from the Aquitaine region as Beleth´Rim himself. Whether he´s just a local hired gun or permanent member remains to be seen. Either way I was pleased with everything so far. Then comes the song of the album in my opinion ´Ave Satanas´ which has a killer, thrashy, Vlad Tepes, style riff throughout the song. The song alone is good enough to warrant a purchase for the album itself, it´s that good. No need to worry about the rest because it doesn´t decline in quality. From The Depths... has a true classic black metal riff and feel throughout to make you nostalgic for the LLN heyday of the 90´s. Then comes another headbanger in ´Total Annihilation-Armaggedon´ which is another classic unto itself. Great tune and really catchy, kinda reminds me of the original slower version of Belketre´s ´The Dark Promise´.

Then to my absolute delight near the end I heard a re-make of one of my favorite Torgeist songs ´Flame Of Hate´. In no way does this re-make fall short of the original from 1995, In some ways Beleth´Rim´s voice is louder in the mix than the original version. His voice has slightly aged from the Torgeist days but in no way does it lose intensity, hatred and delivery. He still screams with the best of them and if anything he hasn´t lost a step, as opposed to Meyna´ch´s voice today compared to his 90´s vocal range. The Black.. still has the best voice in black metal in my humble opinion. This album loses a point because the intro and outro are not as good as on ´Your Ruin...´. But this album has to be considered for black metal album of 2008.

Lastly, to quote the man himself from the booklet, The Black Lord Beleth´Rim is the creature of the night, messenger of your doom. The Black Legions lives on! BE IT KNOWN! Motherfuckers.