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When you look back at the old days when black metal was still young and some of the now established musicians took instruments in their hands for the first time, then it is astounding to hear what quality these recordings actually possess. Compared to what is offered today by a lot of labels as well as bands, one might argue that these, the new ones, are merely ripping of fans of their money with their crappy releases; which get far too often ratings and attention they do not deserve.

So, back in 1993, this neat little 7" was produced and it is a pretty good one.

Intro: Darkest Depths
With over three minutes, this intro is definitely too long. It is nothing more than some weird vocals that are repeated over and over again in different way, but after a while it gets a little bit boring. A drum pattern and a keyboard texture in the background, such as can be found in horror movies, complete the impression that the band wanted to create some insane stuff, which, from their point of view, would work good as a opener of this 7". None of these ideas can be found later on the album, though.

The Embrace Of The Cold
This song foreshadows the kind of music the later formed «Carpathian Forest» would play on their early releases. Punk influenced black metal with a lot of drive and a simple rhythm structure. Listen to «The pale mist hovers towards the nightly shore» from the «Through chasm, caves and titan woods» album and to get an impression on how this old one sounds; but «The Embrace Of The Cold» has less dynamic and power, but the general idea is the same. Even though the song-writing is not very complex, the atmosphere is pretty neat and fascinating; Nattefrost's croaking is to a great deal responsible for it.

Born In The Hands Of Doom
Of the dynamic of the preceding song, not much is left at the opening of this one and only after one and a half minutes, the tempo reaches the level of «The Embrace Of The Cold». The third track is more complex and not so focused on the rhythm like the aforementioned one, as the tempo and motives are more varied over its length. Again, like it appeared also on the second one, did «Grimm» add some solo elements to enrich the music, but due to the rather bad production they have vanished in the background and cannot clearly be identified; it is possible to recognize them, but nothing more is possible.

Final bits and bytes
The 7" is a gem and it is nice to have it. Even though there are only three tracks on it, these are very good indeed; especially when considering the time they have been written and recorded. A hand-drawn cover completes the positive impression of this album. Some glimpses of where «Carpathian Forest», which became the main band of several members of «Grimm» after its split-up, would take on and proceed with their first demo respectively EP. The music on this 7" is very old-school and not very complex, but fascinating nonetheless. These tree songs have a neat vibe and atmosphere and make it easy to enjoy them. Furthermore is it nice to see where it once started for some of the now established musicians.