Allfather

Wow, why am I reviewing a 23-year old EP from a band that barely anyone knows? I wish I had a good answer for you. Maybe because I'm bored, but also because even if this wasn't their best release, it was still pretty good, and made Allfather stand out to me as a band that had a ton of potential.

As another reviewer mentioned about Allfather, this band wore a lot of the Angelcorpse influence on its sleeve -- the tempos, a lot of the riffs, the lyrical themes, and the cover art all nod strongly to Pete Helmkamp. However, what I prefer about Allfather is the speed with which they shift gears: a song starts and does the vicious war metal thing for 20 seconds. Then it abruptly switches to a more melodic, dirge-y section. Then it goes back to something fast. And then the song is over! I remember having a conversation with Paul (Allfather's drummer) long ago where he said he didn't see any need to repeat sections in songs. His quote, if I recall correctly, was "if you like a part, rewind it, or just listen to the whole song again. The songs are short anyway." Brilliant, and I totally agree with him: when playing fast, vicious music, longer song arrangements work against the manic energy the band is trying to create, so keep it concise, succinct. That's an aspect of this EP (and all of Allfather's material) that I have always appreciated.

Another reason I wanted to review this EP is that the song 'And With God Bereft' is one of my favourite metal songs of all time, for the very reasons I just addressed. above. It's 1 minute and 26 seconds of war metal fury, which is exactly as long as a song of this nature should be. It's as lean as a goddamned wolf! Paul's drumming is absolutely brutal on this particular song -- zero triggers, just really fast, really hard smashing of drums.

I also really like Chad Klassen's vocals on this recording. It's almost Cobra Commander-ish with its higher-register, hateful hiss.

The sound quality of this recording leaves a lot to be desired, of course. This was independent extreme metal 1999 so the buzz-y guitar and virtually inaudible bass should be expected. This EP would be an excellent candidate for a remix to fatten up the guitar, bring the bass up, and add just a bit of slap to the bass drum.

Overall, I still like this release and think it stands the test of time as a decent example of not just where Allfather was at this point in their existence, but where war metal in general was at the time. Now go blast And With God Bereft on a great stereo, and weep with joy.