Wraths of Time

There are many appealing aspects of the early to mid 90s black metal scene, not the least of which being the variety that is all too apparent once taking in every respective scene as one grand movement. Much of it ended up going in a number of brand new directions, but there was a fairly conservative element that still clung to much of the death metal trappings that preceded it. Swordmaster are drawn from such a vain, expressing a violent, war-like character not all that different from contemporary releases out of Marduk and Lord Belial, though with a helping of the atmospheric character of Emperor at several key points that give them a level of depth that generally contrasts itself from a number of otherwise similar sounding Swedish bands.

In spite of its brevity, "Wraths Of Time" is quite a thrilling ride for anyone that seeks after a fast paced, dark, vindictive sound that rivals the early offerings of Gorgoroth, but with a less top-heavy sound. The guitar sound has the prototypical shimmering character that has been largely obligatory since the early 90s offerings of Mayhem, and high speed blasting and thrash beats rule that battery section with little accounting for bass presence. Yet at the same time, things are a bit heavier and percussive sounding, almost as if a small remnant of the early 90s Swedish death metal sound has held on and given this album a less cult-like and more modernized sound that is actually a bit closer to what many of today's black metal acts sound like. Similarly, the vocal work also brings in some lower end guttural barks to complement the higher pitched shrieks typical to this era, further painting it with a latent death metal tendency.

For all the interesting little nuances that separate this from the pack, the whole of this album is actually about as straightforward as can be. Things essentially start at full blast and cook right up until the closing "Outro", which sees a haunting, atmospheric keyboard sound with some maddened and incomprehensible ravings out of the vocalist at the end. At times this really reminds of Gorgoroth's "Antichrist" from a structural perspective, particularly the principle melody of "Wraths Of Time" during the blast sections, though what surrounds them has a thrashing character to it that is a bit along similar lines as parallel works out of Dissection. In fact, apart from the mixture of high and lower vocal characters, this listens like a shortened and simpler version of Dissection, walking a similarly thin line between melodic death and black metal.

For anyone who goes in traditional black metal circles, this is Swordmaster's only real offering that fits into the category. By 1995 standards it's a strong release that has received some deserved love, though they still remain fairly obscure. By the standards of what they came to be defined by, this is a death/thrash band that basically did a brief experiment. While comparisons to Dragonlord might be unavoidable, it is important to remember that "Wraths Of Time" does not sound like a Dimmu Borgir album, though the analogy holds true in other respects. It's only 14 minutes of music, but it is worth getting if it can be found.

This is a really short EP, containing only two songs, but they are great. What do you expect from the younger brother of Jon Nodtveidt, though?
This is not Dissection, though. Swordmaster plays a bit faster on here, and with quite a bit more melody. The title track that opens this up is a good example of that, with the semi-melodic verse riff. The real gem on here is "Upon Blood and Ashes," which slays from the get go. In fact, the first 30 seconds of it are just awesome. Then of coure it goes fast, and the singer does a Tom Warrior-esque grunt to kick it off. The fast stuff on here is good too, and I'm not always too keen on blasting black metal. But it works. This song is totally intense, and goes through a few changes before ending. Very cool. "Conspiricy--Preview" is exactly that. The keyboard in the beginning sets a great mood, then it launches into what became "Claws of Death" on Postmortem Tales, but here it sounds much better.
Night (Emil Nodtveidt) is definately a great guitarist. Very competent, and he knows exactly where to add melodies and where to keep it simple and brutal. Jon should get him in Dissection!
Fuck, the drumming on here is just phenomenal. I swear that it's Richard Christy playing on here, and if you look at the back of the album, it sure looks like him, just with corpsepaint. Listen to his crashes in "Upon Blood and Ashes," and all the little fills that he does. On top of that, the drums sound raw, especially the hi-hat, which really makes this seem lively. No wonder Nicky Terror didn't make the band that great on Postmortem Tales. I have no idea who this dude is on here, but it makes me wonder what band he's playing with now because his drumming is excellent. The only time it isn't that good is on the title track, during the blasting section in the beginning, and that's only because you can't hear the snare.
Well, it's so short, so I had to take points off for that. But as it says in the booklet--play it loud! "MAXIMUM FUCKING VOLUME!!!"