Rites of Supremacy

I start to wonder whether someone is playing a foul trick on me. You see, every time the French black metal label Oakenshield sends me an album (look for my reviews on Nehemah and Lucifugum for fine examples) the same things happen.

A. I get a biography that is virtually unreadable because some illiterate French bloke did not bother to do a spelling or grammar check. Hey, you if you’re reading this, YOU ARE AN IDIOT! Get some English classes, on the double!!!

B. I get a CD by a band that is so unremarkable and bland that I feel like cramming it through the throat of the A&R clown that actually signed them. Again, if you are reading this, YOU ARE AN IDIOT.

Berserk’s ‘Rite Of Supremacy’ is nothing special and it is so dull and boring that you start wondering where and when ‘True Black Metal’ ever got so safe and compromised. Everything a standard BM album should have is here. Screeching vocals, rasping guitars, pounding drums, the occasional ‘out of tune’ guitar chord and off beat snare, but the one thing this band needs, yet lacks completely, is inspiration.

If you are going to make music based upon simple ideas and themes you had better make sure that those ideas and themes are worth it. A boring riff and a cheesy melody do not get better with reiteration. Quite the contrary actually

(This review was originally written for http://www.lordsofmetal.nl and is republished with kind permission of the webmaster)