Spiteful Intents

Wow .. just fucking wow !

Does Spiteful Intent explore new musical grounds ? Definitely not !

Does the music distinct itself for the legions of Swedish death/black metal bands trying to emulate Dissection ? Fuck yeah ! This is genuine ... the atmosphere sucks you from the very first acoustic intro, and punches you in the face repeatedly for 16 minutes with riffs that are full of awesomeness. This EP is to Swedish death/black metal is what Bloodbath's "Breeding Death" EP was to oldschool death metal. Some kind of a tribute that deserves tribute of its own.

Spiteful Intent epitomizes how melodicity should be in death/black metal. It's not about a bunch of fags playing synthpop with harsh vocals, it's about tasteful guitar work that, while being melodic, are icy-cold as fuck and will rape your ears deeply and repeatedly.

The three songs on the album are varied. The first one, Spiteful Intent, is the most "Dissection" of 'em all and is my personal favourite. Probe with a quest is a slow-mid tempo song that epitomizes what quality black metal should be about. The Cardinal Sin is one hell of an evil song that will slaughter you, riff after riff. EP end with an acoustic outro.

100/100.

I certainly HOPE that Cardinal Sin will return and make an album, because their 1996 EP was a ray of hope in a stagnating "industry" full of Gothenburg shite and tard-core.

This EP is quite legendary in the Swedish scene because it features musicians from few of the most famous extreme metal bands in that country at the time: Marduk and Dissection. Formed by John Zwetsloot when he left Dissection, here in Cardinal Sin you can find again those elements of black/death with melody. The speed is not the most important thing and sometimes the simple drums up tempo parts are perfect to accompany a sound that points mostly on the guitars melodies.

For example, let’s take the main, tremolo picking riff on the first song, the title track. It’s icy, with a sad feeling. There are some solos too to fill the sound with more melodic peaks and when the tempo is faster you can hear very well where bands like Gates Of Ishtar and Unanimated took their inspiration from. The production is great and quite clear cut without being excessively clean, but thanks to it, you can hear also the bass parts very well.

The sad, obscure and terrific arpeggios on the electric guitars of “Probe with a Quest” are amazingly well done. The semi screams are not too violent, made just to accompany the music without ruining it. The melodies are always beautiful in their blend of sad and epic overtures. The lead guitars create slow and long passages. The speed returns in the “Cardinal Sin” track with a more complex and almost progressive riffage that comes along with the always present melodic breaks. Here we can find again the classic Dissection style cold guitars. The tremolo picking is not so furious but awesome and the open chords parts reminded me the dissonant ones in Frost by Enslaved.

“Language Of Sorrow” is the ourto. It features awesome melodic arpeggios of two classic guitars. Unfortunately it’s too short. Right when you were starting to enjoy it, it ended leaving you the wish to listen to it twice or more. Maybe, that’s exactly the small length that can provide you the desire of listening to it again. I like this music a lot because the most violent side is always perfectly balanced with a sad and cold melody. I can easily recommend this album to any melodic death/black fan and, of course, to any Dissection one.

This is a forgotten little gem, the dream of Dissection’s mourners in these “Maha Kali” times. The band Cardinal Sin is a “supergroup” of sorts, consisting of members of some well-known Swedish bands like Marduk, Nifelheim and The Haunted. Among them, there’s a nice surprise for Dissection fans: John Zwetsloot, who played guitar in “The Somberlain”. I bet it’s reason enough for Dissection fans to buy this EP, if they already haven’t.

The sound here is similar to “The Somberlain”: Very melodic black metal with some death metal influences in the riffage and the drum pattern. There are three songs and one small outro. “Spiteful Intent” is one hell of a track: It starts with a melancholic acoustic which is ripped apart by a great melodic riff and its variations in this first part of the song. After that, two different sections kick in, one with a rawer solo, and the other, which features a riff similar to the intro for “The Somberlain” song. The song also manages to create a dark vibe, based in some sad-sounding riffs.

The second song, “Probe With a Quest” has some traces of early Katatonia in it, mixed with the trademark Dissection song. It is totally midpaced and the intro really sounds like something off “Brave Murder Day”. Think of the middle section as wrote by Blakkheim: There’s one small buildup for an “emotional” guitar line that might be repeated more times but unfortunately it isn’t. Listen to “Nowhere”, from the Sounds of Decay EP and compare.

“The Cardinal Sin” is much rawer and less melodic than the above songs, it’s a pretty fast, thrashy song. There are still some small melody touches, like the riff at 1:56. It’s similar to “Son of Mourning” but rawer. The final part has some insane screams by Dan-Ola Peterson. The last track is one little outro, called “The Language of Sorrow”, which is pretty nice but should be longer, at least two minutes.

It’s really very good and consistent. All of the instruments are very well played and surprisingly enough, even more for an ex-Marduk drummer, there are no blastbeats, just pretty well executed drumming. A really nice EP for fans of melodic black metal or Dissection. Now, all we can do is pray for them to work on this project again and release a full-length album (the band is on hold).

I've been mourning the loss of the mighty Dissection for many years now, and enjoying their albums over and over again (especially "The Somberlain," which has a very special meaning to me). Luckily, one day I was in a used record store and saw this little gem sitting in the bin for $3. It featured ex-Marduk memebers Jocke and Devo, as well as ex-Dissection guitarist John Zwetsloot. I picked it up without hesitation!
This is a definate continuation of what Dissection was doing on "The Somberlain." The songs have very strong riffs, melodic parts, and the obligatory acoustic parts (yes, Zwetsloot's a great guitar player and his pieces on "The Somberlain" were fantastic).
"Spiteful Intents" starts the album off with a pensive acoustic riff that then rips into classic Dissection-ish attack. Towards the middle of the song, the tempo changes and a really cool Maiden-esque riff is played over a grinding thrash sound and some bizarre (for black metal) drumming. The two solos are incredibly melodic and fit the mood perfectly.
"A Path With Quest" (not sure if this is the correct title--it's strange) is next up, and unlike the rest of the songs on here, was written by Devo instead of Zwetsloot (otherwise, John wrote all the music and lyrics on here). Very atmospheric, with riffs like Mayhem's "Freezing Moon," but this song stays slow all the way through. At parts it's a little like Katatonia's first album. The ending builds up really well.
"The Cardinal Sin" is basically full on thrash, with probably one melodic riff. Not a standout track, but pretty damn good over all.
"Language of Sorrow." Ahh...this is a short acoustic instrumental. The title speaks for the music.
This CD is unfortuanatly rare so if you see it and you're a Dissection fan, YOU MUST FUCKING GET THIS!!! It's a shame that Zwetsloot hasn't put more stuff out lately, because if this is any demonstration of what he's capable of, he's clearly talented!