Buxen / Aifur / Mordhell

This is a three way split tape between Buxen, Aifur and Mordhell. Starting with Buxen I must say that this is one of those bands, which turned out to be a positive surprise, despite that it’s just basically a very typical and unoriginal Darkthrone-ish black metal. They’re taking the elements from “Transilvanian Hunger” up to the “Total Death” albums, but Buxen also reminds me some of the very old Behemoth recordings, which is very cool, in my opinion (listen to “The Seal of the Black Death”). Anyway, I must say that Buxen didn’t become the best black metal band around and honestly, they’re very typical and almost mediocre, but solid enough to give them some listens. It definitely is stuff, which I would strongly recommend to those, who like the early black metal and want it to be unpolished, untrendy and definitely also fuckin rough and relentless. Even the fact that some riffs sounds like a rip off – take the opening theme of “The Chalice of the Black Death”, which is like a rip off from Mayhem’s “Freezing Moon” – it still doesn’t bother me, as Buxen plays everything quite well and composed solid tracks. “The Chalice of the Black Death”, which I just mentioned, may sound like Mayhem’s cover at times, but it is a nine minutes long song and really has a lot of cool parts.

Buxen is definitely better and more worthy to listen to than Aifur, whose primitive and raw black metal leaves me careless rather than it is able to create any kind of emotions. I don’t mean it’s terribly bad, because I’ve heard much worse stuff in the past, but Aifur has no ability to really shred. Luckily their music fits perfectly to both Buxen and Mordhell and so it doesn’t disturb that much, especially if you’re into bands like Judas Iscariot for instance. The production of their songs is OK, there may be some really cool riffs and fragments also, so I can say that such tracks as “Nuclear Bliss” and “Asphyxiation” can definitely be recommended to the maniacs of the pure black metal, especially if you like when it is mainly fast.

Final word on this split belongs to the Polish Mordhell. I know this band well, I’ve got their demos and two full length albums in my collection and here, on this split, they putted the “Suicide Blood” EP, which I’m also familiar with. There are six tracks on it and I must admit that it definitely is the best band from the three, which you’ll find on this tape. I mean each has some strong points, even Aifur, once you start to listen to them and get used to their sound, is able to make good impression on you, but Mordhell sounds just better. Sure, their black metal is yet again different to two other bands’, it is rather mid paced, with very specific rhythms, which will remind you both Darkthrone and Carpathian Forest… but it just really cool. Mordhell creates great, eerie and sinister atmosphere and simply shreds with some fuckin cool, sometimes almost catchy morbid black tunes. Yeah, I really like their music, even if “Suicide Blood” is not my favourite of all of Mordhell’s recordings.