Come, the Wolves...

I usually don't prefer to roast on musicians for non-musical reasons (for instance, Varg Vikernes with his ideology, or Jari Maenpaa with his crazy fan tease antics), but it was very hard to not have this album's score affected by its background. Count Orlock -- oh wait, I'm sorry -- Quiet Thunder (as he claimed his real, legal name was) is known for trying to make himself as "trve kvlt" as possible by claiming stupid things (besides the name, he also insists his origin on the site be "Mercia" - a defunct kingdom from centuries ago), creating dozens of "underground" projects with supposedly "ominous" and "mysterious" names, and following every black metal trope to a T - however, instead of having any artistic value, he's more like a fanboy, doing all of this stuff thinking it's cool and it'll get him attention. I suppose it has... but not in a good way. And the excessive 0% scores on his projects show just how much I expected.

The biggest issue with this album is that nothing is straight up original. Count Borelock (which I'm going to call him for the rest of the review because I'm still not convinced that his real name is Quiet Thunder) just uses tropes. Shitty quality? Check. Reference to nature? Check. Exaggerated evil-looking font? Check. Double-kicks? Check (and believe me, I'll get back to that). Actually, the only trope he didn't use is the usage of black metal screaming/shrieking vocals. Instead, there's spoken text on "Warspirit", but it's so unenthused and monotone that it doesn't set up an atmosphere or any feeling at all. In fact, if it wasn't there, it wouldn't have made a difference.

Not like "Warspirit" was enthusiastic or interesting in any way in the first place. The big problem with Count Borelock is that he's a fanboy that wants to follow in the steps of his idols, which is fine on its own, but since he doesn't add anything new, clever, or even interesting to the scene, it doesn't stand out. He just follows the tropes in hopes that he appears cool and kvlt, but he doesn't. The two tracks that resemble black metal on this album repeat themselves until the song is over, without switching anything up at all. Heck, it drones on and on so much it's even more annoying than any song on Burzum's Dauði Baldrs album. Dauði Baldrs is repetitive to the point where it often gets annoying, BUT at least the songs had AN ORIGINAL IDEA, whereas everything Count Borelock put on here sounds like terrible missteps/early demos from more reputed artists at best.

Also, can we talk about the musicianship? The guitars are terrible. I know Borelock was going for some underground, poorly edited feel, but honestly, he's trying to make black metal, not ruin our ears. I doubt he was trying to make his album sound like a half-assed Murmuüre, and if he was, he's still not making some kind of art. The drums are not only completely unoriginal; they are the most basic drums I have ever heard in my entire listening career. Hell, even EDM music has more originality than THIS. Borelock just double-kicks for the entire song, and he NEVER changes it up, save for a few cymbals he placed in at complete random.

"Prologue" and "Epilogue" are worthless and probably not even Borelock's own work. He just took sound clips from God knows where. They play for 20 or 30 seconds, and then they stop. If they were somehow incorporated into the other songs, maybe it'd be a little interesting, but since they stand on their own, there's absolutely no reason for them to exist.

The only track I can give the tiniest amount of respect to is "Strigoaica", but it lasts as long as the other songs should with their bare-bones structure. "Strigoaica" is a kind of interesting acoustic track, but since there's only one idea and it doesn't last long, it has no staying power.

Overall, avoid this. I really want to see Borelock grow up and actually learn how to make real music (and also stop doing really dumb shit) but judging by this album, it will be a while.

Favorite songs: Strigoaica (but my God, don't track down this album just for THAT. Strigoaica is, at most, passable)

Least favorite songs: I hate everything else, but Warspirit takes the cake because of how long it is