Insane Apollyon

True old school black metal. Glorious past of underground. And so on. Well, the music of many black metal pioneers was not destined to be heard: either it wasn't recorded at all, or the recordings have not survived to our days. Insane Apollyon a. k. a. Ahriman can be called "lucky" in this regard: he managed to record something from his stuff (sometime between 1995 and 1997) and this material has survived. And although only two songs from this compilation of the category "all that could be salved" can be taken seriously, it's worth paying attention. It is true that this release could be perceived not only as a "monument" to the unknown pioneer of Finnish black metal.

Thus, there are two parts on this release: black metal and non-metal. The black metal songs are the first four tracks, the remaining two tracks – experimental/ambient. So black metal from Insane Apollyon is mid-tempo and a little erratic, it sounds almost like Absurd of the "Facta Loquuntur" period, except that there is even less distortion on the guitar, so the Finnish lone wolf got more punk sounding. Another "particularity" of the Insane Apollyon sound is that guitar strumming and distortion sound as if separately, it manifests itself in the second song "Kill, Kill, Kill" more than in the first one.

The result of this punk sound for me personally was that the beginning of the first song "Insane Apollyon" (including the solo) reminded me of one of the songs of the Soviet/Russian punk rock band Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Гражданская Оборона), almost one to one. Be the way, there is a second version of this song (the third track on the disc), but I didn't grasp the difference between them, at least the sound of the second one is "cleaner".

The last black metal track, which is untitled, was probably just a draft. It seems that it was supposed to get complicated, both in structure and sound, but failed. Unlike the previous songs, this composition is notable for its dissonances and chaotic feeling, maybe it can be described like "structured Abruptum". At least one riff of this draft is definitely not bad.

However, I should note, although "punk sound" most riffs on these three songs are "black metal-ish". And as for the vocals, they are undoubtedly "black metal-ish" and not "punkish" at all. Insane Apollyon sings very emotionally, even heartfeltly, his vocals are more deep-felt than the music itself.

Tracks from non-metal part were performed apparently on guitar, for which a lot of reverb was used. The guitar sounds are richly flavored with mysterious noises, a light knocking, creaks and screams, it is highly approached for a horror movie. And although the second composition is more musical, if I may say so, it is difficult for me to take it seriously. Well, at least it's not "Mortiis played with one finger" – such "creativity" was very common among black metal musicians in the mid-to late 90's.

So it would be interesting to listen to the full album of Insane Apollyon, but he decided that it would be much more "truly" to shoot himself than to compose music. As we know, he was not alone in this opinion, but the others at least managed to record some albums.