The Cold Earth Slept Below...

Eternally primitive and nihilistic sounding, Judas Iscariot is a band cemented as one of the biggest classic US black metal acts. With Akhenaten as the longtime sole member, this band also stands alongside Burzum as an example set even earlier by Bathory that black metal can be composed and played by one person; a trend that for better or worse would be adopted by many other "bedroom" acts throughout the next two decades. Through Akhenaten nihilistic journey, The Cold Earth Slept Below stands as his filthiest, most grim, and one of his best.

Primitive and nihilistic are two very accurate descriptions for this album in both the attitude and the songwriting. Akhenaten's obsession with the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and William Blake have been expressed in his liner notes on multiple Judas Iscariot albums, and some of his lyrics are borrowed from their works. Their tone is also expressed in the music itself. The music is very raw sounding though the guitars do remain very clear which allows the listener to easily get hooked on the rhythms. What really drives home the primitive vibe is the drum performance. Akhenaten is far from the best drummer in the genre, but the inherent sloppiness actually works in this album's favor. They give this album character and a very organic feel.

Forty-four minutes from nine track sis about average for a black metal album, though one song is less than thirty seconds long while another is just over nine and a half minutes. The album paces itself well and despite the minimalist feel, the songs do feature a fair bit of dynamism. Judas Iscariot is a fairly fast tempo band, but many of the band's best tracks have these extremely effective slow breaks. On The Cold Earth Slept Below, these moments come up on "Damned Below Judas", "Babylon", and "Midnight Frost". Equally effective are the tracks that are wholly slow paced for it's these moments where the band actually sounds the most grim. In the case of this album, those songs are the title track and the closing track "Nietzsche". These parts just sound epic in their own dark and brooding way.

A cult classic, The Cold Earth Slept Below should have a place in every black metal fan's collection. It was released during the mid-90s when black metal was expanding beyond Norway and manages to remain loyal to its roots while also creating an identity of its own.

Growing up in the Midwest in the US is often portrayed as a singular, uneventful lifestyle, and for the most part, it is. But, what is often left out is the odd lonesomeness of growing up there. I grew up in the country, with acres of land and no neighbors, and just by luck , I happened to go to high school in the city. There I found people who, more or less, were already attracted to heavier stuff. You know the groups; AC/DC, Metallica, Megadeth, Zeppelin, etc. Through writing for the Metal Observer as a young lad, I discovered black metal, and began to show it to everyone I knew. Because of this ravenous, self-driven hunger, I exposed myself and help expose others to this underground music. We had to drive an hour to go see shows up in Cleveland, and because of our age, it wasn't really realistic that we could form bands with the guys who normally played up there. So, if we wanted to start something, we had to make it ourselves, and we could only mimic those who inspired us.

I have fond memories of playing in a shed on my parents' property, and if you drove by the one main highway, you could hear faint screaming and blasting in the distance. It was, in a sense, a truly individualistic experience and an experience utterly dependent on pushing those around you to stay interested. You found a genre of music to play, and if someone didn't like it, they either had to put up with it because they wanted to play no matter what, or break off and form their own projects; and projects rose and fell because of this precarious balance.

This is why Judas Iscariot, out of all of the progenitors of USBM, is the most important to me, and why the debut, in spite of all of its flaws, is incredibly important in the development of USBM as a whole. Judas Iscariot is indeed musically important, but the man behind the project is equally as vital. Akhenaten loved this European music, and much like the rest of us growing up in the Midwest, he had to go far out of his way to acquire, practice, and participate in this music. Unlike my era, he grew up in a time when it took far more dedication than simply frequenting forums and webzines. Because of this driven passion and limited access to talent and materials, Judas Iscariot unwittingly birthed the first uniquely American black metal band.

Unlike Black Funeral, who wore its influences on its sleeves, borrowing equally from the Finnish and the Norwegians, Judas Iscariot took the black metal sound and actually did something new with it, mainly strange floating melodies based less on orchestration (i.e the “flowing), or pure aggression (i.e the “filthy”) and on a sense of atmosphere instead. This atmosphere was again, uniquely American in its theme of isolation or nihilism. Unlike the European hordes who had thousands of years of pagan tradition, national history, the burden of the Western World, or firsthand experiences of World War II. America, due to its nature as a young nation, has a different kind of historical take – one almost entirely dependent on moving forward, on pursuing something more, and the greatest sin is to remain stagnant. So, looking to the past for inspiration was not an option for Judas Iscariot – the role was to always use the past to propel forward.

Even the American sense of isolation is different, and perfectly captured in Judas Iscariot’s debut. Unlike the pining misanthropy romanticized by the hermetic heroes of Old Europe, the American isolation was something entirely linked to society. The isolation isn’t found in the forests, or in the mountains, it is found in the fact that you don’t know your neighbors, and honestly, you don’t care to know them. The isolation comes from the powerlessness and the dread of a system that actively crushes you while stating it’s always doing things for the best, for freedom; when in reality, it marginalizes and spits out every aspect of true rebellion. Living in the middle of nowhere in America and having a dissenting view from those around you is true powerlessness – attempting change where no seeds of thought will sow.

Such is Judas Iscariot’s sense and rebellion; not one yearning for a Pagan dawn when the chains of the Christian oppressor are thrown off in favor of the old ways, but rather attempting to break away into something more free than the limits man places upon himself in the form of so called freedoms.

This is evident in Akhenaten’s obsession with Nietzsche, especially the track named after him. Akhenaten mournfully croaks:

“I travelled through a land of men,
A land of men and women too,
And heard and saw such dreadful things
As cold earth wanderers never knew”

Over a monotonous and unchanging riff – an unsurmountable sense of loneliness is evident here – our Overman is plagued by visions of something greater, and burdened by visions of the dreadful limits man places upon himself. He attempts, through the song, to find a new meaning, and create something greater, more purposeful, only to find solace in a death that remains as meaningless as his attempts. It is true dread, and delivered in such a slow, churning and repetitive way – that dread becomes boredom, and then, as Nietzsche says, we are truly dead.
But, all is not purely thematic, and the music is also an integral part of Judas Iscariot’s establishment of USBM. The first thing that the listener will realize is that the music is incredibly sloppy. Embarassingly so, actually. “Damned Below Judas” starts the album off with static, but still somehow sloppy drumming, with a riff that changes maybe three or four times over the course of five minutes. But, even in its sloppy delivery, there’s this weird sense of newness to it. Nothing really personifies this precarious balance better than “Babylon”, which starts off with a tremolo riff and mid-paced blasting, something very similar to early Mayhem, but with a more melodic flair to it, before moving into an utterly bizarre punk/heavy metal riff around half through the song.

This more or less begins the trend of how Judas Iscariot would approach songwriting, sudden, jarring transitions from traditional sounds to unique and strange variants on melodies and harmonies. The title track is simply beautiful in its delivery, with repetitive joyful sounding melody juxtaposed with a doomy, almost sludgy riff. Very few songs stay particularly fast, songs like “Midnight Frost” and “Reign” both seem like they’ll blast the entire way through, but they both quickly shift to plodding, almost funereal doom songs. The latter is particularly effective, with Akhenaten howling and chanting for a miasmatic and harrowing effect.

The slow, deliberate riffing is probably due to a lack of skill, but much like “I Shalt Become” – it works well within the thematic concept, and created an almost entirely new genre of black metal. Each song on this album does sound different, but manages to keep a cohesive whole. Yes, the tempos may change, and the delivery may change (hell, the audio quality changes on a few, “Nietzsche” has like five different volumes), but the bleakness, the dread, the coldness of it all, manages to stay effective and emotive. Instead of based on a similar sounding theme, it is a similarly constructed theme – something that I think was uniquely American again. It always seems like there’s no vision, no real message, but really, the message is less about the individual structure and more about the whole.

It’s not a particularly good album, there are many amateurish flaws kept intact (either again, due to lack of skill, or because of lack of tape). There are whole moments when the bass just seems to disappear, his vocal levels change far too much, the drumming is not only sloppy, but is barely audible and there’s almost no variation (I don’t think there’s a single fill on the whole album). But, there’s this undeniable sense that something important was being created here; a new take on an established genre, and a creation of a unique sound that would begin decades of experimentation with black metal.

What makes black metal great, exactly? I mean, there’s a lot of different stuff at work in the music, but I think all fans of the genre can agree that one thing pretty much makes or breaks a black metal band: the atmosphere. There’s a certain evil, otherworldly atmosphere that good black metal possesses that no other genre can really capture, and it’s incredibly vital that the band channels this atmosphere because every component of the music works towards creating it, and when isolated, none of said components have a lot of value.

This is the main reason why this album isn’t a success. Individually, there’s not much to complain about in the guitars, drums, and vocals, but the problem is I shouldn’t find myself isolating the instruments to analyze them; I should be analyzing them as part of the music as a whole. Each piece of the music sounds awkwardly separate from each other, almost as if they were to blend together they would get sonic gonorrhea (damn that has a nice ring to it) or something. The drums often seem to lag behind due to the vocals having no rhythm or feel for the music at times, which unintentionally speeds up the pacing of the music. It’s not like this usually isn’t something I can get used to, but Ahkenaten never ALLOWS me to get used to it because just when you’ve settled into the disjointed, yet somewhat fierce music he decides to change something- the riff, the tempo, the vocal styling or any combination of the three rather abruptly. This not only starts the whole “getting used to the weird mess of things” process all over again, it makes the song sound more like a bunch of similar ideas slapped together as opposed to an actual SONG.

Fortunately, this album’s got a couple of saving graces. No matter what Ahkenaten is trying to accomplish in any given song, you can always count on him to write a solid riff or two, it’s how it’s always been and always will be. They’re simple, blunt, three-to five note tremolo picked riffs, which don’t have much in the way of flair or fancy toppings but always get the point across clear as day. Strangely enough, the riffs don’t always sound wholly black metal-esque in that they don’t take the higher-pitched, piercing approach that is rather common in many of the “pure” facets of the genre, but rather, they take a more dismal, grungy approach that brings death metal, or perhaps even thrash metal to mind but never outright sounds like it takes any real influence from either of the two genres. It’s not a style that’s groundbreaking enough to turn heads or be instantly noticeable, but it gives the music its own personal spice. It helps keep the album refreshing and listenable as time goes on and gives the songs a bit of lasting value.

The only problem is that even though Ahkentaten can crank out furious black metal grooves like there’s no tomorrow, on The Cold Earth Slept Below he hadn’t really discovered what emotion his type of riffs are best applied to, said “fuck it” and decided to try out everything he could to see what worked. There’s a different type of feel for every single song- for example “Ye Blessed Creatures” aims for a cold, bleak atmosphere, “Damned Below Judas” goes more for the “creeping death” feel, “Reign” sounds like a festering combination of anger and despondency- anything goes here, and it’s all competently done, but there’s no real flow in between all of it- it’s a little too ambitious for its own good. In a way,it sounds like he's trying too hard- throwing everything he can at the wall and seeing what sticks-, and even though that manages to keep the album somewhat fresh and interesting, it makes for an unmemorable listening experience.

All things said and done, most of the flaws of this album can be chalked up to immaturity- The Cold Earth Slept Below is merely the fetal stage of Judas Iscariot, a precursor of what was to become. Despite how overly ambitious this album is it really only ends up displaying a minute portion of the talent this band has. There’s definitely some good ideas happening here but they’re clouded by the awkward, clunky delivery of the music- so this is a good album to hear if you want to hear the development of Judas Iscariot, but on its own it’s rather disposable. Recommended for Judas Iscariot diehards, but really, there are probably only about ten people who would apply that label to themselves.

First, before I mention anything about the songs, the drums were the must terrible I have ever heard in a black metal album. The drumming in this album was simply amateur and weak. Though it had a capability of speed in some cases ("Wrath" for example), you could hear many times how the drummer was lagging behind during the songs. Other than drumming, the guitar created a very key atmosphere that made this album at least work.

In the beginning, the music is gloomy and slow. The riffs on this album are similar to death metal styled riffs, they are also unique in a way. The atmosphere of this album gives the listener a sense of withdrawal, desolation, and wrath. To be clear, this album has a great atmosphere. The thing that reasons why I gave this album a 73 is because Akhenaten, in this album, didn't know how to connect these atmospheres and displayed that he didn't know how to play his instruments. The amazing thing is that Akhenaten still maintained his maturity throughout the beginning of the album. It was maybe because the raw atmosphere was seen as serious.

During the middle of the album, Akhenaten made the atmosphere rawer. The sense of withdrawal was more prominent. Still he maintained to keep his maturity. After a while, the album get's boring. The atmosphere keeps on getting repeated and simultaneously there is no distinguishing atmosphere that might be good or bad.

During the end of the album, Akhenaten made the atmosphere clearly repetitive. The song "Nietzche" has a very good tone to it but naturally becomes a drab tone after being repeated twenty times! The whole song was like reading "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" in an old shrilly voice while playing some easy chords in the guitar. In this song Akhenaten completely surrenders and can no longer maintain his maturity! Oh no, hear him fail! The ending was probably the saddest part of the album. I felt really sad to know that this Akhenaten is the person who is claimed to be the nihilist genius, the person who made a revolution by screaming his poetry in an old shrilly voice. Akhenaten is a very smart black metalist, non - conformist, and good musician. But in this album he is all but that. I recommend that the people who want to listen to Judas Iscariot should rather get a different album other than this one here. The re-recorded version of this album is probably better, for the drums at least.

This might just have the spot as my favorite black metal album. In 1995 Akhenaten created this masterpiece of dark, cryptic, totally nihilistic metal art. If you ask me what black metal is, or what USBM is, I'll point you straight to The Cold Earth Slept Below. This is the ultimate example of the grimness, melody, and attitude that a black metal album should have: moments of sheer cold fucking aggression, and moments of sorrowful melodies.

The highlights of this album are the best place to start. When I first got this album, I dismissed it because I thought it sounded too much like Darkthrone, and I was frankly tired of hearing bands like that. There were a few songs in particular, and a few parts that had me listening again and again, and these Darkthrone-ish songs became entirely Judas Iscariot. Go to Babylon, track three. This song has some badass riffs, but skip straight to 2:30. Holy shit. That is black fucking metal. The defining riff of black metal for me. I'm not entirely sure any other band plays it like that. Akhenaten could have thrown in a few "UGH!"s for emphasis and it wouldn't have sounded corny at all. Another maximum highlight of The Cold Earth Slept Below is the title track! There's only about three riffs I think, but the melody and atmosphere of the two main riffs is really well done. The other guys who enjoyed this album said that Nietzsche was too long, but if you ask me it's just as much a highlight in its length as those I already mentioned. I think that a good long, repetitive song like this closes out an album very well. The main riff is very grim, almost doomy with lots of bending. It gives you time to appreciate The Cold Earth Slept Below, and the vocals are alot easier to hear. "She feeds upon his shrieks and cries, and grows stronger as he grows oldddd".

The real glory in this album lies in Akhenaten's own abilities. His vocals are second only to Nocturno Culto in my opinion. Grim is a word said alot in a black metal review, but hell, is Akhenaten ever grim. Growling, evil fucking vocals accent this music so well. Thin guitar with plenty of buzzy and some doomy melodies only make it better. Bass is hard to hear, and his drumming is sloppy as it gets, but I think that his drumming adds so much more feeling to the music. Finally, the end of the album is the coolest of any black metal album ever. "She lays him down upon the rock, and all is done, as I have tollllD." Doesn't get anymore black metal. Buy it.

Judas Iscariot is the first and most well known USBM band out there. Absu? They are a black thrash band. Sure there were a throng of black metal bands releasing demos at the same time as Judas Iscariot. There were also a bunch of black/death metal bands in the US which were basically producing shitty black metal by fusing it with death metal. Akhenaten produced the first nihilistic and unique USBM album with The Cold Earth Slept Below. The Cold Earth Slept Below is a bit different from the few albums following it like Thy Dying Light and Of Great Eternity, although similarities still exist. Reasons for this may be that Akhenaten released this album on a different label than the Thy Dying Light and Of Great Eternity. Another reason may be that Akehanten has several different styles found on different albums, aggressive black metal, melodic/mid paced black metal, and atmospheric/nihilistic black metal. At times these styles are combined on Albums too, such is the case of The Cold Earth Slept Below.

The Cold Earth Slept Below is Akhenaten saying “this is what Judas Iscariot can do, this is what Judas Iscariot is and will be”. It showcases a wide range of black metal and sounds like several other of Judas Iscariot’s albums. The Intro track alone Damned Below Jesus sounds like three different Judas Iscariot albums. The song starts off with a rolling, dark, and grim black metal riff with the standard sloppy repetitive “Darkthrone” drumming. This part of the song sounds like An Eternal Kingdom Of Fire off Heaven In Flames. The vocals of Damned Below Jesus are harsh and deep, like something off Dethroned, Conquered, and Forgotten. About halfway through the song a melodic high pitched riff takes center stage and the drums start to change up a bit making this part of the song sound like Thy Dying Light/Of Great Eternity era Judas Iscariot. Babylon features some fast and aggressive drumming which sounds similar to the stuff off To Embrace The Corpses Bleeding, it is also accompanied with a grim and aggressive riff that has a lot of variation for a Judas Iscariot song. Another stand out song is Fidelity, the song starts out with a choppy drum beat accompanied by a washed out guitar, it’s a break from the overall aggressive tone of The Cold Earth Slept Below. The song proceeds with a fast high pitched riff which is the road to carry Akhenaten’s harsh and dark vocals. Finally ending the song is a build up of every instrument (including vocals) getting faster, more aggressive, and more chaotic. The title track is a melodic, flowing, dark, and atmospheric song, focusing on guitar repetition and melody. It has some memorable moments and breaks away from the standard grim/aggressive mold of the album, it even has a few catchy riffs. With so much going on with this album, its hard to find flaw.

Akhenaten decided The Cold Earth Slept Below needed a long (around thirteen minutes) song that is dragged out, repetitious and boring. This song is Nietzsche, a slow moving, sloppy, and extremely repetitive song. Of course a lot of black metal focuses on repetitive riffs, but one that is slow, unimaginative, only about 4-5 notes, and repeated throughout the entire song except for a few variations is the most boring and uninspired thing to be produced by Judas Iscariot. If the song weren’t thirteen minutes, say more like three to five like the rest of the album it wouldn’t be so bad. Nietzsche just ends the album on a bad note, which is better than having it smack in the middle of The Cold Earth Slept Below’s great black metal, say track 4 or 5. Other than this the album is without fail. The production is not the best, but it works perfectly for this album.

Overall The Cold Earth Slept Below is a combination of the atmosphere of Thy Dying Light, the riff style of Heaven In Flames, the drumming of To Embrace the Corpses Bleeding, and the aggressiveness of Dethroned, Conquered and Forgotten. The general style of the album is aggressive, grim, and dark black metal. At times there is melodic riff based song segments, and songs that are overall slow and mid paced that focus on producing an atmosphere of dark devastation and desolation, at times an indifference or nihilistic feel. This album is what Akhenaten wanted Judas Iscariot to be at first, but then changed the band and tried some other styles, ultimately ending up with it again on Heaven in Flames and To Embrace The Corpses Bleeding, for the most part. The Cold Earth Slept Below is one of Judas Iscariots better works because of its versatility, it has everything wanted of a Judas Iscariot album.