I don't think they were ever a particularly good live band. Listen to this, dude, this is priceless... I was digging around in my old metal memorabilia, and re-reading an old D.I.Y. underground magazine called "Necropolis" from late 1991. The author, Paul Thind, was reviewing a gig where VON had opened for Cannibal Corpse, Gorguts and Atheist, and basically just ripped on them:
"...The actual show started out with one of those pathetic satanic Death Metal bands: Von. Yeah they did get laughed at with their stage props...I was walking around with Eric from Gorguts when these guys played and we had a good time laughing at them!! I dont think I can say anything good about this band, so I won't" - Paul Thind, NECROPOLIS Magazine, fall 1991.
I've heard some of their recordings and I don't think they're bad for what they are, which is very basic, 3 -chord tremolo picked riffing style black metal, but it's certainly not rocket science. The point is, this band was utterly dismissed and ridiculed at the time. But, they got a bit of a hype a few years later with the whole Varg/Euronomous thing, and then instead of trying to improve on what they were doing back then, they simply try to cash in on what little popularity the "Norwegian Black Metal" hype had gained them and just do the exact same dang songs over again. I cannot imagine how this could ever work to their benefit.
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Can't really be worse, or can it...