Prophecies of Pagan Fire

The most relevant black metal bands from Belgium are probably Enthroned and Ancient Rites. As you surely know, the latter have turned to a more or less symphonic approach during all the years, while Enthroned still have this diabolic element which is essential for the sub genre. Their debut "Prophecies of Pagan Fire" is a celebration of pure black metal (of the second wave). The beastly nagging of lead vocalist Lord Sabathan mirrors the misanthropy of the black scene sustainably, the drums love raging speed and the guitars create different moods. And for the sake of completeness: the bass is also present while failing to set its own accents. Anyway, that's no major deficiency. In a nutshell, this album does not suffer from a bad production.

Enthroned act cleverly. The musicians do not only focus on high velocity, because the band has more to offer. Despite the similarity of some speed parts, the output does not lack variety and special effects strengthen the charisma of some tunes. The fantastic "Under the Holocaust" offers exciting speed outbursts, but actually it stands out due to the crying seagulls that appear after an acoustic break. (Short information for all animal lovers: the seagulls reappear in a less prominent role at the beginning of "Skjeldenland".) "Scared by Darkwinds" surprises with effective keyboards. I admit that rarely occurring keyboards are not the most special effect, but their targeted utilization increases the dynamic of the song. No doubt about it, Enthroned have a knack for precise impulses. Further tracks are equipped with mournful background chorals or bells and a piano fights with the domineering guitars at the beginning of "At Dawn of a Funeral Winter". Speaking of the guitars, they sound either bitingly cold or they deliver crude melodies at full speed. Indeed, some tunes are enriched by the skilful use of the keyboards, but the persistence of the guitars characterises the album decisively.

Of course, the band does not deliver a unique understanding of the black genre and it makes no efforts to hide its inspiration. A song title like "Rites of the Northern Fullmoon" leaves no doubts. During the mid-nineties, it was more or less impossible to evade the dominant influence from the (justified) media-hyped Norwegian scene. The fast sections show a spiritual kinship with the unleashed storms of Immortal's "Pure Holocaust" and I bet that the band members loved to listen to the minimalist yet powerful approach of "Transylvanian Hunger". Yet the rebellious horde does not prefer conventional verse-chorus-verse schemes and it masters the challenge to present suspenseful designs. For example, the aforementioned "Rites of the Northern Fullmoon" scores with an unexpected melodic sequence at 1:42. Without doubt, this potentially threatening debut is not the work of mentally retarded dudes who feel fine while creating a slavish imitation. The three-piece has enough own ideas without violating the unwritten rules of the chosen style. Although the fairly opulent full-length has a rather critical playtime of roughly 55 minutes, Enthroned avoid boring and / or repetitive sections. The enthusiasm of the vital band prevents any form of mediocrity.

"As the Wolves Howl Again" is not the best track of the debut, but it constitutes a mighty closer. It shows no signs of battle-weariness, even when considering the fact that it also includes calm and atmospheric sections and a fairylike voice at the end. Instead, the song serves as the last proof that there is no need for absurd discussions about the high quality of the full-length. I know that convinced democrats will not share this point of view, but that's no problem at all. I vote for the worldwide black metal dictatorship or the global thrash metal anarchy. It doesn't matter. What really counts is that "Prophecies of Pagan Fire" features a band whose members have already reached an amazing level of musical maturity. Too bad that Cernunnos (R.I.P.) killed himself two years after the release of this punchy debut.

There is some proverb about the observation that a master makes his craft seem easy. That is extraordinarily true when it comes to the more minimalistic styles of black metal, as pioneered by Darkthrone for example. The music of "Transilvanian Hunger" seems to have the peculiar trait of causing aspiring musicians to have delusions about their ability to write black metal, as if it were easy. Perhaps the style seems easy to emulate. It can hardly be that there exists only a handful of possible riffs of excellent quality that can be written and performed by a black metal group with moderate ease (and disproportionately great effect), and that most of them were used by Darkthrone or Gorgoroth in their albums. After all, a decade after the release of the minimalistic second wave classics, albums of similar style and nigh equal quality were written. The later generation's talented musicians realised the possibilities still unused, astutely combining aspects learned from the second wave masters, injecting enough of their own personality and peculiarity for them to have a clearly defined identity. Enthroned, on the other hand, came only slightly after the initial boom of the second wave, releasing their debut full-length album in 1995. Much of the second wave's nature had already been unveiled by the likes of Gorgoroth, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Immortal and Burzum, meaning that Enthroned had a chance to study and learn from the mistakes and successes of their forerunners, and yet, they seemingly fell into an immense pitfall of the combined shortcomings of all their influences.

Belgium's Enthroned showed considerable talent on their debut album, but only a fraction of the album is genuinely interesting to listen to. Little of it is particularly grating – only the tasteless synths are – but even fewer passages are anything compared to the classics of early 90s such as Gorgoroth's first three. Enthroned is perhaps somewhat similar to Satyricon in that sense, although even "Prophecies of Pagan Fire" is more focused and pointful than "Dark Medieval Times". Enthroned's debut, in juxtaposition with Satyricon's, benefits from much better song design and more dynamic pacing. However, those very aspects are some of this album's most remarkable shortcomings. The lack of intensity, the mindnumbingly generic riffing that comprises a great part of this full-length, and the tepid production prevent the album from being enjoyable despite the shortcomings in riffwriting. For the most part it's run of the mill material, with adequately skillful and accurate performances (apart from occasional drumming blunders, such as in " Skjeldenland").

The way Enthroned keeps their music listenable (if not in any way interesting) despite treading paths of wholly negligible artistic values is quite curious. Attempts as assessing the enjoyability of albums like "Prophecies of Pagan Fire" quickly becomes equally arduous as enduring an entire album of music so hackneyed. The entertainment value of this album depends considerably on the degree to which the music is paid attention to. There's no question as to whether it's sub-par or not, but curiously, its most chafing elements are more easily ignored than usually, and therefore the album may serve as passable background music, being largely inoffensive (despite the occasionally irritating drumming and very insipid keyboards). Most of the album's serious defects only become unbearable when considerable attention is paid to the music. As background music, "Prophecies of Pagan Fire" merely hobbles its way from half-conceived, uninspired passage to another, without causing any considerable irritation. However, when listening to "Prophecies..." in an attempt to truly gauge the album's strengths and weaknesses, the music becomes remarkably frustrating to listen to. Its bareboned and clear production exposes its lamentably insubstantial core painfully well, and having a remarkably dull production, "Prophecies..." struggles at keeping the listener's attention for even the duration of one song, let alone for nearly an hour. There are certain albums whose intriguing production somewhat make up for flawed songwriting and lacking content, but excellent sounds alone can hardly be expected to hold anyone's attention for an hour, and the production on "Prophecies..." is lifeless and unimpressive anyway.

The majority of the album comprises very typical, even stereotypical black metal riffing, often excessively repeated. "Deny the Book of Lies", the first song after an acoustic intro, reiterates the same uninteresting tripe for two and a half minutes with some variety in the drumming before introducing the second riff of the album. High-pitched, passionless screams accompany some listenable but largely uninteresting passages as simplistic and cheap sounding keyboards toll pompously. The music plods from passage to passage, occasionally picking up in speed and introducing somewhat interesting riffing, sometimes crawling through pits of utter boredom. The album's greatest problem is probably the excessive repetition of throwaway material, the lack of atmosphere (be it utterly ferocious, savage and dismal, or beautiful and mysterious – the album is simply very placid), and the poorly elaborated ideas that might've amounted to something with better songwriting. Even the better songs such as "Under the Holocaust" and "At the Dawn..." (where the excessively repeated riffs happen to be quality ones) have long spells of tedious tripe to be waded through. The album is excessively long for what it is. Having less worthwhile material, even in absolute terms than the first couple of Gorgoroth albums, the album is doomed to being remarkably uninteresting for a great part of its running time, despite having some gorgeous passages, like in "Under the Holocaust". Some of the better moments recall Scandinavian death metal (such as in "Rites Of The Northern Fullmoon"), which gives the album an interesting twist at times, and there are some very good black metal riffs on the album aswell. However, the whole thing is stretched to twice the length the material would warrant, which considerably cripples the enjoyability of this album.

"Prophecies of Pagan Fire" is best suited for reading, writing, programming or some such attention-requiring and absorbing activity. It can provide passable background black metal, and when an actually great moment comes up (they do, occasionally), the listener can focus on that while it lasts. It's a shame how forgettable and uninteresting the majority of this album is, as there are several very good moments hidden in the mass of tripe.

I’ve always said the way Enthroned are underrated. They almost always put out very good efforts but for some reason they barely reached a good level of notoriety. Surely, the black metal aficionados know them but often there are lots of other bands coming before Enthroned when you think about a black metal act, even if just few of them conserved that intact, hellish soul all over their discography. Enthroned did it. Even in non spectacular effort like Armoured Bestial Hell, you could always feel something about evilness and brutality…

However, the history begins in the first years of the 90s and after a few demos, Enthroned was finally ready to release the very first full-length, this Prophecies of Pagan Fire. Soon this album has become a truly cult and so it must be if we consider the quality of the music here. Enthroned here were at the top for malevolence and evilness even if they played slower than on the last efforts. Speed is not always that important when you are able to create pure visions of hell and darkness. Prophecies of Pagan Fire was inevitably influenced by the Scandinavian style but somehow, listening to this album, you can hear a truly personal touch.

We begin with the gloomy sounds and the wind of the title-track and with “Deny the Holy Book of Lies” we can hear the very first black metal riffs. As I said, the tempo is not that fast and, like many early black metal acts of the period, the drums are on fast up tempo style, giving that sensation of primitivism. The riffs are fast when the tempo settles on those up tempo parts but the quite long mid-paced breaks let the less impulsive riffs take dominion in order to give the right dark touch. The vocals by Sabathan are unmatchable in brutality with that incredibly excessive shriek tonality. He gives the sound an even heavier hellish touch as we come across the classic Enthroned dark melodies thanks to the use of just a few synth interludes and the classic lead lines by the guitar.

“Under the Holocaust” features again truly evil riffs along with the neverending up tempo sections as we can hear again the synth under the other instruments, giving a ritualistic catchiness, also to that fantastic and murky break in the middle. “Scared by Blackwinds” is one of the best songs here because again the occult melodies are perfectly opposed to the fast restarts creating a perfect balance. The same can be said for the following “Tales from a Blackened Horde” but on this case the synth inserts are even stronger to create the hellish atmosphere, without suffocating the great lead lines sections and the evil vocals. “At Dawn of a Funeral Winter” is a long track with massive riffs, doomy interludes and raw bass drums sections. The guitars here give the main touch of gloom even if a few notes from a piano are perfect too and original.

Let’s frankly say that in long songs like these ones on this album we can find a bit too stretched parts but I think that here everything is made to be obsessive and ritual, like for example what Samael did on Worship Him album. The fact of putting out long sections with just few variations is a think that literally hypnotize the listener, also with those keyboards parts. They are always able to capture you. “Rites of the Northern Fullmoon” shows no mercy due to its uncontrollable speed but “Skjeldenland” has a far more epic touch even if the speed is always at high level during certain sections. “At the Sound of the Millenium Black Bells” is one of the most famous Enthroned tracks at it’s undoubtedly fantastic, with the atmosphere that reaches high peaks, especially by the solo in the middle, supported by the bells sound.

The last “As the Wolves Howl Again” features two detached structures that at times they collide and create a good mix of black and almost folk overtures. The arpeggios or the synth often break the speed to give variety to the sound, ending an album to rediscover in black metal. Here Enthroned were superb, like on most of their albums.

Beforehand, I never even knew such an amazing black metal band could come from Belgium. Then again, why not? They already make great chocolate.

Anyway, listening to this album was quite an "out-of-body" experience. Incredible atmosphere with nice mild distortion and echo effects on Sabbathan's vocals and melodic, but not overriding keyboard hums added for aura.

The first song that ever enticed me on this album--now my most favourite--was/is "Skjeldenland". "The Rites of the Northern Fullmoon" are another grim and evil highlight, setting the stage for the horns of Baphomet.

It's unfortunate for Cerrunnos. Being a drummer myself, he plays very well for this album with just the right amount of blastbeats and shifting loose grooves to suit the change in dynamic, speed, and time signature of every song. Since he's dead, it's nearly a miracle for the band finding other suitable drummers in his place. I hope that Glauurung will serve well (and hopefully stay in the lineup the longest) in respect of Cerrunnos' drum throne.

What is unusual in this album is that it is very.. shy. What do I mean? Well, when you look on the cover, on the band photos of that time and when you listen to the album you notice that it doesn't show anything brave, it doesn't shock you, what's more - you rather know what might wait for you out there... You would think - "another typical BM album, again..." - but it would be a mistake...

"Prophecies of Pagan Fire" doesn't attack you with itself, but waits for your attention. However, it holds many secrets in itself, many things that you wouldn't think of. Though it starts comperably to the other play-as-fast-as-you-can-and-praise-satan BM bands, it changes quickly to a great, atmospheric work that shows a very interesting, though not really innovatory side of black metal.

What you will find here are great, various riffs, various tempos, nice vocals, monumental keyboards, acoustics and great atmosphere. Some of the songs are more Swedish BM - style, some remind me early Satyricon ("Tales from a Blackened Horde"), some have a death metal riff inside and so on and so on... You will never get bored - I promise.

The album doesn't provide anything new, actually. It develops what was invented in black metal some time before releasing this material. Don't ignore this album as it holds the essence of black metal.

the best: "Under the Holocaust", "Tales from a Blackened Horde", "Skjedenland", "Rites of the Northern Fullmoon"

Prophecies... starts out with a sample of some winds and eerie sounds, perfect for the grim and necro. Throw in some acoustic guitars a minute into the title track, and you have yourself an introduction to Enthroned.

The album, in its entirety, has a sub par production, but not as bad as other black metal (In the Nightside Eclipse, Transilvanian Hunger).

Enthroned really came out swinging with this debut CD. Blazing riffs, droning riffs, excellent drumming, and subtle keyboards make this CD fit together perfectly. Sabathan has a great BM voice, and uses the echo effect perfectly.

Few symphonic black metal bands have done better. My only complaint is that some parts of the album drag on a bit too much. The greatest thing about this album is the way they use the keyboards so that you hardly notice them. They fit perfectly with the music. Almost as perfectly as Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk.

Highlights: Under the Holocaust, Scared by Darkwinds, and Rites of the Northern Full Moon.