Par le sang versé

Now to first preface this review this is probably my favorite black metal album of all time but I feel the obligation to illuminate some of the shortfalls of this album. This album suffers from what ill call too much epicness and while that is a very arbitrary thing to nitpick I feel like this album suffers from that especially on track 1, 5 and 8, This is most evident on track 8 and while I know the second half of the song is just trying to do a epic close to the album it still drags the song down due to the large repetition. Track 5 also suffers from a similar problem and it is very similarly egregious but this time it is more palatable due to the presence of vocals during that section. Alright thats me done being nit-picky on to why this album is so amazing.

I'll start off with the guitar work and for this album it is superb. The riffs are not too overbearing and the overall high production value/mix of this album compliments that leading to the guitars overall sounding great. The guitars are perfectly technical and variation to riffs is always added when needed to progress the song further. While the guitar work is great the bass suffers on this album from a lack of attention that is commonplace in black metal when compared to the black metals contemporaries i.e. death metal. The drums on this album perfectly suit the speed and variations that are so prevalent especially with all the acoustic breaks and epic sections. The drums do not drown out the rest of the band while still being very audible and sounding great.

One of the first things someone will notice while listening to this album is the medieval aesthetic utilized here both visually on the album cover and musically in both the instruments used and the song structures of nearly every single song on this album. Now i'm not great with identifying medieval instruments but if the lineup on this site is correct both the guitarist and the vocalist both played different folk/medieval instruments such as the psaltery and the flute which really demonstrates the talent of those musicians. To examine song structure I will be mainly looking at one song in particular track 2 which seems to have the most fluctuation song structure. The song begins furiously with a great scream accompanying it, the riff continues alongside the vocals until the song reaches its first hiccup with a small acoustic break only about a minute and a half into the song, This immediately sets the tone for the rest of the song but this break is only temporary and the song continues back into a flurry of amazing riffs and eventually the song reaches a peak after what can be considered a small guitar solo and the song enters the bridge. The vocals follow the guitar nearly note for note helping establish that harmonic atmosphere.

All of those elements create an amazing album deserving of extremely high praise this is the pinnacle of the genre.