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Troll > Drep de kristne > Reviews
Troll - Drep de kristne

A real stinker of an album - 25%

Commander Octopus, February 24th, 2023

I like Troll. The Last Predators is a decent album, but it was with Neo-Satanic Supremacy that Troll created a modern classic. But this... Is really mostly embarrassing.

There isn't really anything "symphonic" or "atmospheric" about this album, but rather Nagash trying out sounds on a keyboard. It all sounds so plastic and dull that it's pretty amazing this was considered good material to release through a record label. I already have an aversion, not to symphonic metal with synthesizers per se, but to underwhelming sounds trying to imitate an orchestra. Not even good compositions can save the belly splash of youth recreation center style soundscapes. You have to really know what you're doing when you're balancing symphonic elements with metal to not end up a display of insufficient craftsmanship.

The problem with Drep de kristne is not only how flat and amateurish it sounds, the compositions and arrangements are painfully simple. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like Nagash's ambition was to create simplicity in a minimalist vein - on the contrary, the whole album reeks of unattained bombast and majesty, making the awkward moments the more cringeworthy.

The black metal riffs are very much second tier and really don't add ferocity or darkness. It also doesn't help that the guitar tone is a muddled fuzz worthy of a stoner rock demo band. Nagash croaks are among the most annoying I've heard since Mauricio Iacono took over microphone duties in Kataklysm. This is not how I imagine trolls would sound, but rather the quacks of an angry duck undergoing waterboarding. The drum machine (?) is passable.

There are a few promising moments, but they are all too often ruined by some awful idea. "Naar Solen Blekner Bort" has a nice opening and almost makes it to the "listenable" goal line, but then Nagash presses the "choir voices" button on his keyboard one time too many and spoils it all. "Med Vold Skal Takes Kristenliv" introduces a terrible sinus tone "clarinet/oboe" sound about one minute into the song, which I desperately try to interpret as an eerie pedal organ, but the song drags too much to convince, and in the end I'm just annoyed.

I won't go into how bad the two instrumental songs are, but they contribute to breaking any kind of flow that could have somewhat redeemed this album. Some may argue that Nagash was only a teenager when he wrote this, and you know what? You can hear that all too fucking well.

Despite all its flaws, two tracks are pretty enjoyable. "Troll Riket" delves in the same soil as Gloomy Grim would a few years later, and has a pretty nice gothic vibe. "Drep De Kristne" is fuming with second wave rage and its incorporation of keyboards feels surprisingly becoming keeping in mind how amateurish the rest of the album sounds. These two tracks hint at future greatness and are by far the most cohesive tracks of the album. If they would have been released as an EP, my score would have looked different.

Nothing really worthwhile - 35%

Forever Underground, April 18th, 2021

I had no knowledge of this band, or rather solo project as far as this album is concerned, but from what I have seen the leader of Troll is a regular of infamous bands like The Kovenant or Dimmu Borgir, but despite the varied reactions that those bands produce in the community, it seems that there was a consensus about the quality of the album, being considered as one of the greatest symphonic black metal albums of the 90's from what I have been able to read.

I'm not going to lie, it's very easy to fool me with symphonic black metal, I tend to overestimate any work that endows its compositions with atmospheric components and that's easy with a forced intrusion of keyboards, there are usually people more clever than me who realize these deceptions in the compositions but I usually fall into them. And yet easily 90% of the keyboard intrusions in "Drep de kristne" seemed to me totally boring and I could say the same about the whole album, after numerous listens I can hardly remember memorable moments of it.

Focusing a bit more on the keyboards, I have the impression that they are extremely simple and vague, their sound is intrusive but, I don't know if for mastering reasons, it's extremely low and makes them feel like a prelude that goes nowhere, besides the melodies are incredibly simple and unimaginative, even I, who have no idea of composing could visualize numerous moments to add more dynamic parts to the keyboards so it doesn't sound so repetitive, if I am able to see that and it hasn't been included in the final work I can only think of two reasons for it.
1º Nagash didn't want to and then he is bad at songwritting.
2º Nagash couldn't include it because he wasn't able to reach that musical level with the keyboard.

Whatever the reason is, it leaves Nagash in a bad place as a keyboardist, although this is not even his worst section. I'm not one to complain about the vocal skills of singers in black metal, but Nagash's voice sounds weak, as if he doesn't really put his heart into it, again I really don't know whether to say that the mastering of this album sucked or that Nagash really seems to care about everything the same way a worker cares about the price of the bitcoin.Honestly, maybe the problem is me, but I can't help but see "Drep de Kristne" as a simple and lazy work, without any kind of depth at any level and with few moments of lucidity like the final segments of "Kristenhat" "Guds fall" or the homonymous "Drep de kristne" or some particular riffs that sound decent, although these are usually uncommon and short-lived.

Maybe some of the problems could have been solved if some of the songs would have been longer, the atmospheric sources could have gained more depth and work better, songs like "Med vold skal takes kristenliv" or "I saler av sten" reach interesting melodic moments that leave you wanting for more, but there is no more. By the way, I haven't seen anyone talking about this but after several listens I start to wonder if the drums are not a programmed, because they sound exactly the same during the whole album, maybe Nagash's level as a drummer is worse than as a keyboard player and we can really see how this solo project was too big for him.

The saddest thing about this album is that it's not even bad enough for me to remember it for that, my brain will make the same effort to remember it as Nagash did to make this album, and in a few months the only thing I will have left to remember that I listened to it at this moment will be this review, this same review that will serve me to remember a good musical moment, the moment when I put on the John Denver compilation to clean my ears from this album.

Troll's best work - 86%

Daemonlord, July 17th, 2011

Troll are one of the many projects of Nagash (ex-Dimmu Borgir, Carpe Tenebrum etc), and yet another band who were great in their early days, but went on to suck greatly in their later periods (i.e going on to wear loads of make-up, add industrial elements etc, similar to another one of his projects The Kovenant). However, 'Drep De Kristne' saw Nagash creating some really fucking evil black metal, which fizzes with scorn for Christianity from the perspective of... well... a Troll. Laugh all you might, but this is an excellent album. In fact, I'd probably rank it in the top ten of the darkest symphonic black metal albums in existence.

Amongst all the darkness, there are the occasional nods at the humpaa metal of Finntroll and Korpiklaani (see 'Trollberg' in particular for an example of this), but for the most part, it purveys evil ensconced and sinister black metal all the way. Nagash's vocals gurgle and spit tales of sheer hatred, while the guitars sparkle with an acerbic froth, eating into the veil of synthesizers which readily float around each chord struck. The drums merely clatter away tirelessly in the background, adding nothing more to the music other than strong foundations for the other instruments to work their spellbinding magic.

'Drep De Kristne' has its fair share of spacey, epic moments, whilst managing to maintain a gloomy, bitter aura throughout. To me, it gives a perfect example of how symphonic black metal can be grim, kvlt and true too. All in all, this is well worth digging around for.

Originally written for www.metalcrypt.com

A Shame Nagash Stopped Playing Black Metal - 97%

Lunar_Strain, February 18th, 2007

Wow, Nagash actually knows how to make Black Metal. How come this is amazing, but Nexus Polaris (form The Covenant) sucked so much ass?

Drep De Kristne is a semi-raw, atmospheric Black Metal band by Nagash, and it shows that back in the day, he actually KNEW how to make REAL Black Metal. Then he started making ridiculous Industrial Metal with The Kovenant -- and now even THIS band is an Industrialized "Black Metal" project. Troll has gone from Grim to $$$ in such a short time, it's sad.

Why?

Because this album is amazing. The guitars, the synth, the drums -- everything fits into key. Nagash took a rather polished direction (production-wise) with this album when he released it back in '96, the guitars having a nice, heavy crunch to them, and the drums blasting in behind them. The only overly dominating factor of these instruments in the mixing were the synthesizers, which are turned up a lot louder than most things.

I should say, however, that being Nagash was a prepubescent teenager when he recorded this/formed the band, his vocals suck, just as they always have, in my opinion. However, because the music is amazingly good, the vocals seem to fit in really well with the music -- Nagash sounds like a Troll. Irony? Maybe, but then again, it could have been done this way on purpose. The album IS about Christian-slaying Trolls.

All in all, this album is highly worth finding and highly recommended.

An atmospheric masterpiece - 92%

Kristenhat666, November 23rd, 2006

Do you like True Black Metal??? I sure as hell do. And I am more than aware of the fact that it’s almost impossible to create a TBM album and use a considerable amount of keyboards. But not totally impossible. TROLL ‘s “DREP DE KRISTNE” is the proof.

Whenever a band decides to use keyboards on what is dubbed a Black Metal release, the usual outcome is a pseudo BM album, where the guitars and bass (which are supposed to be very important) end up slaving away to the so-called atmospheric effect of these keyboards. Unless of course, the band makes merely a limited use of “atmosphere”. On “DREP DE KRISTNE”, the stringed instruments retain the sort of role they deserve. Well, at least the guitars do. They are clearly audible, and have that required buzzing sound to them. And they sound just as aggressive as they are supposed to be on an album whose title means “Kill the Christian”. Sadly but not surprisingly, as on many releases with a typical BM production, the bass is not to be heard. The keyboards are omnipresent, often choir-like, and seem to melt in with the guitars to put across the thoughts and mood that Nagash wanted to express. And I have to say that this is by far his best musical effort. The truth be told, this is no raw Underground BM album. The production is too high-quality for a True Black Metal release, and this might ruin the impression for many a listener. Plus I personally fail to see the point of track number 3, “Trollberg”. It’s an instrumental without any stringed instruments, which seems rather inappropriate to this genre of music. But the fact remains that “DREP DE KRISTNE” is a lesson on how to mix real Black Metal with a layer of keyboard-generated atmosphere.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not my favorite Black Metal album. Far off that, actually. However, it does deserve a huge amount of respect, for having achieved something that very few others (maybe none) have yet to succeed in: ”DREP DE KRISTNE” has proven that True BM and all-around keyboard use do not necessarily contradict each other.

When BM becomes a form of art... - 92%

Jack_Phoenix_Manhwa, December 9th, 2004

This review had led me into a kind of writing block before developing my objective analysis. Before continuing, I admit that I have a particular feeling towards this album, just because it's the black metal one I know better and probably the one I know best. I started listening black metal with this very full-length, and I haven't found the same display of technique and atmosphere in any other record of this genre... except Emperor, of course. So, that's why I'm fucking biased talking about it. I don't remember if this is the self-made Nagash album, or if it had been released with the help of other members of the current group... anyhow, it's a fucking work of genius who has built these stuff. I bet I could glorify Nagash eternally for releasing a such incredible variety of riffs and synths.

Let's go with order. The first one, "Kirstenhat", is the intro until 2:10. The well-defined structure of this intro made me think I was going to listen to something great... and I was, though. The orchestration ain't quite simple as many are, and the complexity of handling more than an handful of instruments synths is almost perfect. Then, here comes the brutality. Powerful blast beat supported by the double bass drum with fast-paced basis, string effect that overwhelms and surrounds the listener, a powerful and heavy-distorted guitar riff... the only flaw is the low bass, but I think it might have seemed extraneous from the rest of song. Progressing into time, it reaches some choirs and even a slight touch of vocals, that recall the typical BM style scream, but devoid of the excesses of Mayhem's Maniac.

The second, "I Saler av Sten", starts with an awesome keyboard section, supported by a quite elaborated guitar riff that carries on many vocals and a pretty complicated drumline with a taste of counter tempo.

"Trollberg", instrumental, starts immediately with a melody that, joined by a male choir effect, develops on a drumline similar to shuffle ryhme. It lasts until even until 2:00, when it changes to leave space to a more evocative and more reflexive piano section soon accompained by the male choir, showing how a credible atmosphere might be led by a simple melody made by three notes at all... a true lesson for all the ones who insert terrifying licks or keyboard tempos without trying to keep a coherence in all the pieces.

"Naar solen blekner bort" is a more classical BM song, and it might been influenced by a kind of Satyricon, I think. Anyway, the vocal parts have a killer riff that surrounds the listener, and the consuete piano and warm synths. At 2:40, it turns to a faster drumline made by combos of single and double bass beats, perfectly executed, after returning to a meaner theme for the outro, less fast-paced but far more powerful.

"Troll riket" returns to a more symphonic attitude with the intro, even restarting with the continuous double bass drumming and a simple upper combo made principally by cymbals. The voice continues to be clear and audible even through the imponence of keyboards, choirs and synths that fill the entire scene. The song changes to 3:24, introducing a faster-tempo upper-body drumming and fading out.

Next here comes my highlight, "Med vold skald kristenliv". Devastation at the maximum speed, starting from an incredible 8-seconds scream, developing in a thrashy riff and the same alternance of single-double beats of bass drum, before touching the top with an intensive blast beat that supports the strings'peak. The radical change occurs at 1:40, whence the time slows to show the melody part with a flute synth, slowing the drum time. Then, at 2:35, the song runs towards the end with a re-proposition of the first theme, that interrupts suddenly with a strangled scream.

In "Gud's fall", all instrumental, we see the maximum display of the symphony that Nagash may create. With a mastery of wielding the synths, he creates a true epic composition on an easy snare drum rythm.

The ending track, "Drep de kristne", has a strong epic taste that results from the legacy of choir and fast drumming, almost continously with drum bass and, added, some interesting changes in the alternate use of only cymbals or cymbals/snare drums. The vocals sound always incredibly clear, and even the production quality seems at least spectacular, with the right effects and the right mood, that detaches from the common coldness of the most "true" BM releases like Darkthrone's "Transilvanian Hunger", giving an impression of dark warmness.

In one word, an album to have, especially if you like fine, symphonic Black Metal Art.