Reign Supreme

I remember reading a review of this album back in 1996, and it was stated there that two of the members were in jail for 'satanic crimes', that the band believes that the human race should be exterminated, and that people writing for metal mags ought to be crucified. They also refused to play live, and did not give interviews, so as you see, edgelords have been around in black metal for a long time.

Azag-Thoth deals in pretty extreme and belligerent black metal, but that was to be expected, I guess. Moving along at a very brisk pace. We get the usual tremelo picked scraping guitar riffing that goes head-to-head with a vocalist that sounds like Mortuus from Marduk having a nervous breakdown, being underpinned by a drummer of the Fisher-Price variety going in overdrive for a good part of the runtime. To break up the relentless madness, there are some sparse slower parts, but also a smattering of keyboards in "Hellfire", and the strange voices in "Day of Wrath". It's a recipe I have heard used before by acts like Zyklon-B and early Impaled Nazarene, and it is certainly not without its charm. The demented vocalisations of The Conjurer add a lot of unhinged atmosphere to the fast paced black metal, and I can appreciate the band for sure when they go full on whack job, but there are tracks like "Sumerian Hymn" that just sound too chipper for such an extreme act. When I can go 'lalalalalaaa' along with the music, that kills it for me when we're talking about extreme metal. You don't want your extreme black metal sounding too happy, now is it? Furthermore, the plastic drums also get on my nerves after a while, and the thin production started to annoy me after a while too.

It's the lesser parts that diminish the impact of this album. With all the loud mouth, Totally Evil Dude posturing in mind, these parts become kinda laughable, which takes a lot away from the parts that are actually worth the time. This is perhaps best exemplified by the booklet of the CD, with the front looking absolutely boss, but when flipped over, showing a chlidren's drawing of a skeleton holding a severed head that looks absolutely laughable. You can check that out on Discogs, if you want. It's good for a snicker or two.

If 90's black metal happens to be your thing, and you're bored listening to all the usual suspects, I can recommend you taking a gander at these guys. For most parts, it's a decent dose of fast and aggressive music, but the lesser parts take quite a bit away from it as a whole. Still, if you happen to be a completist, or perhaps want to have a good laugh if you really would want to be malicious about it, it's out there to check out.