Isegrim

Even before the 90's were over, Mystic Circle had become somewhat of a punchline in some circles. They were considered to be Cradle of Fith rip offs, they were posers, they were tryhards, and so on. To be honest, those were accusations you could level at a lot of black metal bands in the late 90's, so why that particular band became the butt of the joke, I don't really understand. I guess it wore thin on Mystic Circle member Aaarrrgon too, because he struck out under the name of Isegrim, a band devoid of orchestral instrumentation and female vocals, returning to the essence of black metal mid 90's style. At least that's how I see it, I get a bit of an underlying 'I'll show them' feel from this EP.

Musically, this is far removed from original, but what it lacks in that department, it makes up in intent and execution. Pretty much influenced by the early works of Marduk, Battlelust, Enthroned and Dark Funeral, but it's not all fast tremolo picking, blasting drums and pedal-to-the-metal velocity. There are some moments that go for a more stomping midtempo approach, but Isegrim also utilizes guitar lines, melodies and patterns that would not sound out of place on an album by Dissection, Sacramentum or Decameron. It's an approach that creates some pretty varied black metal tracks, and in all honesty, this stuff is more than decent. The standard of execution is pretty high, and Aaarrrgon (who, for some reason, goes by the alias Blackwar here) has done his best to make a good slice of interesting and good music. Certainly interesting and good enough to dismiss the lack of originality, as well as the plastic sounding programmed drums.

There is nothing on this EP that you have not heard before, but that was also something that could be said of most late 90's black metal bands. This EP offers up a good dose of fast Scandinavian style black metal without unnecessary frills, and I can see nobody with a heart for that particular type of music go wrong with this little ditty. Perhaps not that of an essential release, but it would surely be a shame to dismiss it without at least one spin.