Customer Reviews

Return Of The Black Death

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great album. Almost black metal, but too slow and doomy. Really depressing and lamenting music....

This release really suprised me. I wasn't too fond of their demo tracks which would later become Martyrium, so my hopes weren't very high. But with the exception of two songs which are a bit boring and uninspired, this disk is really pretty good. Musically it's a combination of cold and icy mid-paced Black Metal with folky medieval elements. The production, especially the vocals and drums could have been better, but the music itself is quite moving. An overall cold, sad, depressed atmosphere rather than angry. My favorite tracks are A Sovereign Fortress, Kongsblod (an extremely moving song depicting the Crucifixion in Norwegian) And Battlefield.

This album was released several years after Horde released "Hellig Usvart" which is widely acknowledged to be the first Christian Black Metal CD. Even though it wasn't first, in 1998 it was still quite a shock for the Christian community. This release featured raspy mid-ranged black vocals and a musical style that covered everything from old-school black, to melodic black, to doom metal. This style was dubbed "Sorrow Metal" by the members of the band because they were deeply saddened by the Norwegian metal scene being so involved with Satanism. That's the history. How about the music itself? A masterpiece. The songs contain all the elements that make a record timeless. The only complants are 1.) The production is quite muffled and the drums often get buried in the mix, so don't expect a super slick recording. 2.) Odds are you will either pay a fortune for this or never come across a copy. If you have the chance and you're really into Christian metal, this is a must have.

To start off with, this is one of my favorite albums at the moment. It's good atmospheric black metal, but it has the harshness to it that remind you of more clasic black metal (ala Darkthrone)
There are a few songs on it which I think are brilliant, like Bridge of Death, Battlefield and Sorg. But there are also some songs on it which I often skip when listening, they are ok, but there are some great ones on it which you would like to listen to a lot more ;-)
All in all a very good album, a christian album brought out on Cataphonous records, which also gives it something. The reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because of the few tracks on it which I don't think are that great. Their newest demo Det Tapte Liv is better in my opinion (though it's only 5 songs the material on it is great) and I can't wait for their coming full lenth album.

If you like this, definitely check out Antestor's first cut (re-released by Endtime) "Martyrium," as well as Extol, Doctor Dark (cheesy name, but good {Kekal guys}), Drottnar and Lengsel (of course). Also get Horde's "Hellig Usvart," and now you're well on your way. Slechtvalk does a cover of "Kongsblod" on their split w/ Kekal (Chaos + Warfare); "Falconry" and "War That Plagues the Land" rip, too. "Embrace the Dead" and "Glimpse Beyond the Realm of Dreams" are str8-up B.metal; "The Painful Experience" is more prog, & if you like that vein, check out (new) Santifica and Bleedience (old San's pure BM) . If you like the more medieval/viking/old school BM, Bleakwail, Excision (Kekal guys) and Crimson Moonlight are cool. For blackish death, there's Immortal Souls & Sympathy (& they're about as two different sounds as you can get w/in one subgenre). Blackish goth: Virgin Black. For pure BM: Armageddon Holocaust cannot be beat (MORE Kekal guys). Doom? Oh, Lord: Paramaecium, Paramaecium, Paramaecium (Stronghold, Morphia & Ashen Mortality rip, too). They have some melodic blackish influences. "Old Path" is a cool mp3-band I found that are only going to get better, faster & more well-produced. Oh, yeah: there's always Underoath's "CotP." I could go on indefinitely.Point is: Christian black metal rips. Return of the Black Death proves it.

I reviewed Antestor's Forsaken earlier and I said that it was a top tier black metal release but that I wouldn't call it the best (black metal ever). Well, part of the reason is that I like Return of the Black Death better. For my money and time, it's Antestor's best release-- which makes it one of my favorite releases ever.

This album finds Antestor at the intersections between doom and black metal. Compared to Forsaken and other pure black metal albums, it's slower, and a bit more prone to creative interludes where the speed of the song changes (to me all of that is the doom side), but it still has bursts of furious tremlo picking and double-bass pedalling, and most of the singing is in the black metal voice (the black metal side). What this means is that you're going to get a fairly creative album that avoids the artsy label and doesn't make you think of other songs/genres while you listen to it. In my review of Forsaken, I said that there were some production aspects and parts of the songs I would change. Well, in this, there is very little I'd mess with, as nothing is really in excess here, no keyboards that are out of control or anything like that, which occasionally happened on Forsaken. And the songs, while they have their furious moments (Kongsblod and A Sovereign Fortress come to mind) seem to trade ferocity for a subtle, sombre, beauty. The kind that allows you to sit and reflect.

What songs do I like the most? Again, most all of them! But Kongsblod, A Sovereign Fortress, Sorg, Battlefield, and Ancient Prophesy are really amazing songs. I first heard Sorg on Youtube, a live recording, which has a solo at the end (an amazing solo). The album recording doesn't have that solo, and that really disappoints me, since Sorg, as recorded on the album, while it is a very good song, could've been Antestor's best had it had that solo.

To me, this is Antestor's best release, and one of extreme metal's best.

As I was searching for CD's at Wherehouse Music (they were closing for good in the next hour) I ran across Antestor. Just by the album cover, I thought this would be some pretty hard and dark stuff. As I looked through the booklet, I saw them with white face paint and different clothing. I thought this was going to be pretty brutal. I was wrong... but to my suprise, this album is good for a doom metal band. It's slow, brutal, and dark. I'm not familiar with their older stuff, nor am I very familiar with this band, so I give this 4 stars due to my own experimentation with this band and a few songs I found boring.

This cd is one of the best cd's you could ever possibly own. Ancient Norwegian Christian metal band -Antestor- This cd delivers an awesome powerful message for God. -Antestor- makes even the most satanic bands look weak. God bless in Yeshua always this cd is a must have if you can find it.

My opinion is this is still the best cd antestor has released. From the music to the messages they get across, absotlutely incredible. A masterpiece!!

Sorg...is one of the darkest songs ever writen...if you are into doom or black metal, pick this CD up...

Sorg...