Strength / Pride / Nobility / The Chant of Barbarian Wolves

Thankfully Satanic Warmaster is one of those kult bands who have put out a nice good kult dischography on kult labels such as No Colors. And they have successfully made some truly excellent kult releases such as "Opferblut" LP, "...Of The Night" EP, and a slew of splits with other kult acts such as Krieg, Clandestine Blaze, Akitsa, etc. Now we have another 7" EP kult release by SW, on this time it's with kult German nsbm band Aryan Blood, and this is where we have a clear example of why kult doesn't work in the least fucking bit.

Here we go with all the kult information;

- 1000 copies, first 88 green (I had no idea that the Irish were considered of nobility or teutonic heritage...guess I'm behind with the times)

Side A; Aryan Blood...you know this is one territory that even my blackened heart dares not journey into. I just don't get NSBM. That's not to say Aryan Blood can MUSICALLY play some simplistic raw, fast, punk-ish BM...like a mediocre version of War(Swe). Fortunately for these asshats Necropolis Records didn't sign them before they went kaput! but goddamn their name is beyond fucking cliche. Satan below and all of his infernal dominions. I can't think of a more cliche fucking song title..."Strength, Pride, Nobility"....are these the same idiots that walk around saying "Seig Heil" and dream of their master race and all that horseshit? Outside of the obvious bitching.....I stay clear of side A.

Right away side B featuring Satanic Warmaster's "The Chant of The Barbarian Wolves" starts off with a kooky-sounding 70's electronic organ piece as an introduction. Actually soothing to the listener's ears in it's nostalgic ambience lasting for a minute and 40 seconds. Then it slowly fades and into those straight-forward melodic riffs SW are known for. Kult riff after kult riff. I have to hand it to Tyrant Werewolf at being able to master the kult sound without being boring. The song "The Chant of The Barbarian Wolves" is very reminiscent of other SW songs such as "the Vampiric Tyrant" and "Distant Blazing Eye"; good sense of melody, blasphemous vocals, rolling/galloping double bass, buzzsaw majestic guitars, etc. Good job SW, keep up that style.

Artwork wise, Satanic Warmaster wins that as well. At least Tyrant Werewolf was nice enough to put lyrics/contact info while Aryan Blood does the overrated 'NO CONTACT' bullshit (That shit only works for acts like Sargeist...besides I can imagine the lyrics are 'kill the jews' or some shit about cleansing the race...) Tyrant Werewolf is getting a LITTLE chunky. Nice pudgy fingers there buddy.

Definately worth picking up for SW's side alone.

This is a split 7", limited to 1000 copies. On side A we have Satanic Warmaster, who offer us a brief intro and "The chant of the barbarian wolves". On side B, Germany's Aryan Blood use the space given to offer us two tracks and a Holocaustus cover.

Satanic Warmaster: The intro is very dark and creates a nice atmosphere with a single, simple riff. Then there is one of the best (in my opinion) SWM songs of all time, the aforementioned "Chant of the barbarian wolves". This song is very memorable and has a few tempo changes that make it more interesting. The style is the one that all of us SWM fans are used to, and that's really cold and somehow nostalgic quality black metal. In addition, the artwork in SWM side is fabulous.

Aryan Blood: Not something special. Although the two tracks "Strength, pride, nobility" and "totenkopfes schwarze blut" cannot be characterized as bad, they are not something special. They are very raw and fast, and if you like this kind of black metal, I think you will enjoy listening to Aryan Blood.