Review by JD on March 20, 2009.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words... Black Metal like this must be so damned wordy it needs its own volumes. Svarttjern is on the rise from the brimstone flames of Hades and now wants is all to sacrifice your daughters for them. Ahhh, I love it!!

Without once seeming the least bit corny or anything, this band thunders out of the speakers and is out to damn your very soul. Not for the faint of heart, they create a spirit of blood stained contempt and demonesque anger that other bands can only hope to get close to. I see the new breed of Black Metal here... and it's clearly upon us.

Needing a little tweaking here and there in the production department has not diluted the power that Svarttjern has. The great music perfectly comes across and beckons you to come under its blackened leather wings so it can bore you to the thrones of the Darkness Christ himself... to sit on his left hand, to hear his tales of misery and pain firsthand.

Svarttjern are cut out of the same desolately cold block of stone as most of the True Norwegian Black Metal are, yet they are a clear step forward from that as well. They display the rawness that makes NBM so damned good, yet they hold a hell of a lot more. I look forward to their next Cd with fiendish delight, throwing my hand up with the horns to spur them on to making another opus.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8.5
Production: 8
Originality: 8
Overall: 8

Rating: 8.1 out of 10