The Shepherd and the Hounds of Hell

Obtained Enslavement

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 6, 2000)
• Original Release Date: June 6, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Napalm
• ASIN: B00004T8ZP
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #227,962 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Black Metal with Classical Elements and Viking Choirs, which Makes the Icy North Accesible. The Fat Sound and the Extraordinary Vocals by Pest (Ex-gorgoroth) Are Enhanced with Refrains by Clear and Pure Male Vocals. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OE - The Shepherd and the Hounds of Hell , October 5, 2008

By	Amy "circleofdestruction.net" (outer space) - See all my reviews

It's initially quite shocking that this is the same band that released Soulblight and Witchcraft, which were very classically-leaning symphonic black metal. This is something else entirely. They've abandoned the keyboards, piano, and harpsichords so prominent in the earlier material. There is a lot more clean singing, but thankfully also still a lot of Pest's very raspy screaming. It's a lot more guitar-oriented and thrashy sounding without abandoning the technicality and odd song structures.

Surprisingly, I thought all the clean vocals worked pretty well here, especially on "Scrolls of the Shadowland," which is probably my favorite song on here. Great way to start an album, though there is not a bad song on this. There are just tons of great riffs here, even guitar solos, varying tempo changes, good drumming, it's just completely awesome. I'm glad there are no keyboards on this though, at times the previous two albums seemed like they just had too much going on at once. There times it feels like black metal and times it more closely resembles thrash or even heavy metal. It sure doesn't sound classical or symphonic though.

It's a damned shame the band broke up after this, I just can't get over how consistently good everything they did is. This is some of the best-written music I've heard in a long time.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent technical black metal, June 23, 2000

By	Hansel "Hansel" (United States) - See all my reviews

Obtained Enslavement just keeps getting better with each release. This is their fourth album, and one thing you will notice is that they have done away with the keyboards and have focused more on the actual guitar work. Technical and semi-melodic black metal is what these guys are about now. This is by far their best album.