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Judas Iscariot > Of Great Eternity > Reviews
Judas Iscariot - Of Great Eternity

Blandness punctuated by occasional genius - 60%

we hope you die, May 16th, 2019

Judas Iscariot were something of a precursor to North America’s addiction to one-man black metal projects in the early 2000s. The brainchild of one Akhenaten, he released a slurry of LPs in the latter part of the 90s. He performed every instrument on these recordings, many of which were done in one take, and boy does it show at times. Some of these drum takes make Lars Ulrich look adept. But I appreciate the sentiment. There is something to the spontaneity of black metal, the ritualistic nature, that lends itself to capturing a moment that cannot be repeated. That’s the whole point of these unique production choices after all.

However, Akhenaten should really have applied his anti-democratic sentiments to his music. Not all riffs are created equal, not all the music you write should be released. His second offering ‘Of Great Eternity’ (1997) is a classic example of this. This is very straight forward black metal, both aesthetically and stylistically. The production is bad, but not that bad, clear but stripped down to basics. The vocals are raspy but lyrics are audible, understated and not overly emotive. The guitars are distorted enough to carry the tremolod riffs, but still clear…almost bland. And that’s really the problem with this album. The lack of surface level adornments need not be a problem, as long as weighty compositions are there to bolster the finished product up. But in this case few ground breaking ideas are present.

The result is…sort of Coldplay does black metal. Darkthrone is the key touchstone here, switching between slower blast beats to simpler marching paces, riffs that are fine but not particularly interesting. However, there are at least three or four stand out moments spread across the album for us to warrant demanding more of Judas Iscariot. The most obvious on this release is track two: ‘I Filled With Woes the Passing Wind’, which from beginning to end is a mesmerising piece of layered guitar ambience, sans drums, which I simply cannot fault. A repeated refrain is revisited over the course of the track, with layered droning chords informing the riff upon each new visit. It works as a seamless crescendo that screams out at the listener when contrasted with the two tracks that sandwich it. I don’t normally like to single out tracks like this, preferring to stick to a broader view of the album as a whole, but this is so far ahead of the rest of the material that it merits highlighting.

And from there a few other riffs scattered across the album stand out. And that is really the case for the entire clutch of albums that ‘Of Great Eternity’ was released with. At a guess I would say there is enough material to make up at least two LPs, but not the five that we must sit through to get to them. There is something compelling about listening to this bland black metal presented with such sloppy takes; because despite how generic much of it is, you can always tell it’s Judas Iscariot; having somehow carved out his own signature style out of the most generic building blocks. And the really sublime moments jump out all the more as a result.

Judas Iscariot took many techniques typical of black metal at the time, but failed to bring anything new to the table. However, each of Akhenaten’s albums is worth a visit if you’ve delved this far into black metal. They remain interesting artefacts of a very different time for black metal, a much simpler time.

Originally published at Hate Meditations

A sort of indefinable nostalgia and sadness - 79%

erebuszine, April 24th, 2013

I suppose that I have been a bit hesitant when it came to covering this band over the years, for whatever reasons - whether I was put off by Ahkenaten's 'totalitarian' speeches or his attempts at NSBM propoganda that were always just a shade to the right of what I always considered worthy of inclusion within political music. But make no mistake: Ahkenaten does not hide his hatred, neither in the music, in the lyrics, or in the support of his projects, and if one is to listen to his creations a decision has to be made... what is more important, the music itself and what it is saying or the words (unnecessary to me) in which Ahkenaten wraps it in? There are those who would say that to listen to music of this sort without being wholeheartedly behind its political/social commentary and motivational direction is to miss the message completely, but I don't agree with that in any way. After all, a man's message may change over the years, and what at the time may have seemed the very reason for existence, the source of a hate that was directly inspirational (here, for example, the disgust for Christianity or other factors), can change to an outmoded embarrassment for its author... as long as one feels, in the abstract, the emotions that Ahkenaten draws on here (or with all his music) then I don't think there will be that wide a margin of error in feeling what the composer of this music wanted its listeners to feel. Such emotions can be summoned and drawn upon irrespective of their final target or ultimate source... Ahkenaten, for example, may hate in a much more virulent fashion than I do (and hate different things than I), but that doesn't change the fact that his hatred - purged here of its direct object(s) when I listen to these songs and when it is presented to me through the medium of music - blends satisfactorily into my own, and offers me a catharsis and expression that I don't feel is futile just because I don't share his particular emphases. Besides, a black metal musician without an object of hatred is a contradiction in terms, an oxymoron. Our social/political convictions (for me, the ones that I do have, in any case), are close enough to be complimentary except on the most literal (exacting) levels. I have never been a political person, and probably never will be, but this music means something to me irregardless. Why? While some aggressive music - a lot of death metal, for example - is merely a recording of artists unconsciously reflecting reality or externals, this album (and most of the earlier black metal that it references) is mainly the expression of an internal reality, the scream of an isolated individual reflecting the external after it had been transformed, through the medium of the individual psyche into something much more integral, something intensely personal. It is important because it carries such a weight of emotion...but I have said enough about this.

The most surprising thing about this music is that it is much better than I had been led to believe... and Ahkenaten, for all his faults as a multi-instrumentalist (he now seems to let drummers take care of the rhythm section and concentrates on guitar) is a black metal guitarist of excellent ability. On this album he expertly encapsulates the Norwegian tradition of atonal melodicism with a few well-placed structural riffs - within the first song, 'The Heavens Drop With Human Gore' and the third, 'Then Mourns The Wanderer' we have a series of minor-chord melodies that evoke all that they are supposed to summon within the framework of traditional Norsk black metal... one can easily hear the influences: Mayhem, a little Burzum perhaps, and above all: Darkthrone. Now, any friend of Darkthrone is a friend of mine, and Ahkenaten, one can tell, has spent his fair share of time researching the roots of Norwegian darkness with Transilvanian Hunger. The fourth song on this album, the speedy 'For the Last Judgement Draweth Nigh', is called right out of the inspiration of Darkthrone's magnum opus, and really there aren't any attempts to hide the influence here at all... in fact, Ahkenaten's vocals on this and a few other songs (they change a bit, but for the most part center around a harsh clawing screech or rough screams) echo Nocturno Culto's perfectly.

One could ask: how is it that this act, which is placed at the top of everyone's lists when it comes to naming bands that stand at the 'head' of the US black metal scene... how is it that Judas Iscariot 'gets away' with being so obviously influenced by European models? At the time of this recording (1996-7), I don't think this was an issue yet at all for anyone...it may be now, when American bands are desperately trying to scratch out a square foot of originality for themselves in an over-saturated world scene, but back in 1996, after the collapse of the really creative years of Norwegian black metal and during the latter days of Poland's entries into the fray, one can not blame Ahkenaten (who seems to have always been on top of what was current within the world scene) of trying, no matter the cost or debt of influence shown, to just make a mark for American black metal bands (although I know he would disavow his allegiance to any kind of American scene, and this album's liner notes points out that the music was written in - and thus inspired by, I can't help feeling one is supposed to think - Germany) no matter the level of originality on what he produced. Original or not, this is just a very good collection of black metal songs - one that hits all the right notes, you could say. Besides, Judas Iscariot has actually been around for a long time now, releasing a great deal of material, and as one would expect, Ahkenaten's focus as a composer has changed over the years - reflecting, I believe, what he was listening to at the time or what he really wanted to mirror (praise, support) with his music. I would never place him among the ranks of the genre's true originators, but I know such a distinction is probably not at all important to him, as he shows through his composing. No, what we have here is basically several attempts to summon, once again, that feeling of 'obscurity' or 'oppressive darkness' that listening to older albums like Transilvanian Hunger or Under A Funeral Moon brings up within us, those emotions and sensations that many other bands (most unsuccessfully) have tried to capture over the years and reproduce - as a sort of tribute, really, to a time long past now... a memorial to a short period in time when a few bands in the far north were writing some of the darkest music imaginable. Judas Iscariot is admirable because it breathes this spirit almost effortlessly, and it doesn't sound awkward or 'forced' in its attempts to call back the grim zeitgeist of early-90s Norway. So what I feel in this music is mainly regret, a sort of indefinable nostalgia and sadness, paired with the anger and unleashing of violence that is always present in Ahkenaten's work, and this regret, the feeling of looking back so overwhelming in the guitar tones and in the slow unfolding of the melodies here, is what really moves me when I listen to this.

UA

Erebus Magazine
http://erebuszine.blogspot.com

Judas Iscariot In Flames. - 78%

Perplexed_Sjel, November 19th, 2007

'Of Great Eternity' is wholly another reflection of Judas Iscariot's take of what black metal is meant to be. If you've heard the live album, you'll know what Judas Iscariot was intending to interpret to the rest of the world with their variation of black metal, "black metal is about hatred and intolerance". That pretty much sums up 'Of Great Eternity' in a nutshell.


Judas Iscariot are the proprietor's of black metal in the United States. They fused old school black metal with a modern day twist perfectly. To this very day their style still sounds as if it would stand up to anything black metal has to offer this very day. 'Of Great Eternity' is a further step into the abyss that is aggression. Judas Iscariot's main aim in life is to create an uncompromising style using double bass and harsh distortion on both the guitars, and the vocals. The guitars are perhaps the most important element of Judas Iscariot's routine, which is nothing new for a black metal band. More so often than not, guitars play the pivotal role in rescuing a band from complete embarrassment, that's not the case when it comes to Judas Iscariot, but they are the most important element of their game.


The tremolo riffs are effective alongside those rasping vocals which are full of hatred like no other. I'd assume the lyrics would prove this point, but unfortunately, I don't know the lyrics. The theme of hatred and nihilism is obviously something that runs close to the heart of this mammoth act. Nothingness is what the atmosphere aims to create. A certain distant and cold feeling, like what the second wave bands were aiming for. However, Judas Iscariot have taken that style to a new level. The repetitive facade that covers this band is effective. Monotonous guitars and a lack of distinctive bass may ruin the opinion of some, but it will enhance the opinions of others. Black metal is an acquired taste, as are bands like Judas Iscariot who simply aim to recreate a dead sound.


'Of Great Eternity' is probably symbolic of the weakest Judas Iscariot albums, unfortunately. It lacks in terms of the guitars. They do create a distant feel to the music, but they're not especially enjoyable. Perhaps that's the aim. The bass is also too content to do the job of the percussion. The percussion consists mainly of double bass blast beats, one after the other and the bass simply follows it. A bit more expression when it comes to the bass wouldn't go a miss. The vocals are typically Judas Iscariot-esque, but we have all come to love those. 'Of Great Eternity' represents probably the least melodic full-length the band have made. It's colder and darker than the rest, though.

Another Strong Release. - 94%

TheSomberlain, January 27th, 2006

This is the third Judas Iscariot album and Akhenaten has his third different riffing style on it. This album is more melodic and a bit slower than Thy Dying Light. The production is good, you can hear the guitars very nice, even the bass. The drumming is good but sounded better on Thy Dying Light.

The Heavens Drop With Human Gore is the first track and has some tasty melodic riffs in it. Akhenatens scream at the end is classic! Then Mourns the Wanderer is another solid song, the bass sounds very good on this track. Our Sons Shall Rule the Empire of the Sea is the album closer and the best song on this album. At 9 minutes it sounds like it could have fit perfectly on Thy Dying Light. Listen to that riff at 4:30 into the song. Wow. Followed by some screams and then a second guitar, this makes this song a fucking classic!

Another top notch Judas Iscariot release. This band can really do no wrong. Akhenaten is a genius! Not as classic as Thy Dying Light, but still very essential.