Black Clouds over Dark Majesty

There is no shortage of NSBM out there that seems to confuse an ear-splitting fuzz with atmosphere. Amateur non-production has made many would-be classics in the admittedly dodgy field of NSBM borderline unlistenable. I can be forgiven for expecting this sort of thing from Thunderbolt and proceeding with caution.

I have been wrong before, but rarely this wrong! This little demo tape brought me back to my early teenage years, when I first stumbled on the likes of Mayhem, Carpathian Forest, Darkthrone and Immortal. This has so much of the atmosphere that was so treasured in the early days of 'second-wave' black metal. The guitars are piercing, without being excessively waspish. The vocals contain just enough echo to give you that cold, cavernous feeling a la Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism, but the style of the vocals has more in common with early Ragnarok. Honestly, it feels like I've found another early Norwegian classic to obsess over.

The drums are something else, they remind me of the first few Maniac Butcher albums, which is nothing to be upset about. The bass is somewhere between Under a Funeral Moon and Live in Leipzig, not exactly dominating the mix, but not buried by any means. And to round out this second-wave worship, there are the atmospheric breaks that are like a blend of the acoustic breaks of Immortal and the walls of keyboard texture you find on Emperor's early albums. It's not a completely derivative record, I'm simply using these well-known points of reference to help paint a picture of what one can expect to find here. This particular blend is not something I've heard anywhere else, but it takes me straight back to the grimness that dominated in 1993, and makes me feel the cold, satanic atmosphere all over again. Instant black metal classic, one I would highly recommend!

Holy shit why did it take me this long to hear this band? After being intrigued by a track of theirs on the Night and the Fog compilation I went on a search to find more, but I did not expect them to be this good.

The band sounds like a mix of many bands including emperor, and dissection with a few of their own touches. One of the best things about this album is that the band isn’t afraid to stray from standard black metal sounds

First of all the production here is excellent. This album just reeks of atmosphere that can rarely be matched in this field of music. Every instrument is heard clearly yet retains a raw cold sound about them. The guitars sound very powerful and epic at times. The riffage is truly excellent and fairly technical at times. The drums sound a lot like Dissection’s did on Storm of The Lights Bane with a little more oomph into them at times. The vocals are very reminiscent of early Dissection as well. They are very cold and aggressive and many of the words can be understood.

One thing that I like a lot about this band is their excellent use in including calmer songs into the mix. For example Shadows of The Deepest Night opens up as a very beautiful folk track with acoustic guitars. The drums soon kick in and sounds like something one would expect to find on a Falkenbach release.

This band is a must to check out if you have not already. If you are wary of NS bands, don’t let this stop you as you will be missing out on something really special.