Grim Reaping Norway

Old Funeral, ah, a band consisting of Norwegian elite whose role cannot be overlooked regarding the establishment of the ground breaking genre Black Metal. Old Funeral being a death metal act comprising of legendary black metal musicians and Grim Rreaping Norway being their only live album, this record is a treat for every extreme metal fan. Old Funeral never used good production and their vocals were mostly questionable against the death metal standards but even yet Old Funeral sounds better than many well established death metal acts from around the world. Their simplicity, the minimalistic approach worked outstandingly well for them because of their great musicianship on guitars as well as drums.

Grim Reaping Norway consists of the best Old Funeral songs, the recording is not great but you can hear is distortion, caused by guitars all over the place and I don't mean it in the bad way, the drums can be heard clearly. I won't say that this is a must for every Old Funeral fan but if you're curious that how they sounded live or some one who is studying extreme metal then you should definitely check it out. You won't regret it and you'll find very competent death metal which'd be brutal yet catchy at the same time and will kick you in the teeth.

There're 11 tracks in the album, the first 7 were recorded live at Hulen - Bergen on August 30th, 1991 while the remaining tracks were recorded live at Slaktehuset, Haugesund on May 11th of the same year.

Well about the music, what else can I say about it, its nothing out of this world, but its cool, the riffs are good, they contain a bit of technicality but not that much that it becomes boring, the overall tempo is fast with slight variations, the bass is not as audible as it is in their other album "The Older Ones", the vocals are mainly blackened version of death metal growls which are different yet refreshing at the same time. I am not sure whether this would be in the blackened death cateegory but whatever it is, it kicks ass. If they had used better production on it, this record might had become more accessible for every one. But it was produced for those who love extreme metal in the original Norwegian sense.

Beware the songs contain really good guitar solos and some brilliant vocals and there're quite a few nice drumming moments, but the Guitars are fucking brilliant and the atmosphere is chilling.

Note : This review is only for those who're familiar with Old Funeral and their work.
It was originally written for Battle e-mag. myspace.com/battlemagazine