Review by Allan on May 29, 2003.

Amongst the rising modern black metal acts that are gaining a bit of success outside the underground is Norway's Old Man's Child. Much like Dimmu Borgir's last output, "Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia," Old Man's Child latest album "In Defiance of Existence" is no doubt going to receive plenty of sneers from those who have nothing better to do with their time than to deface all and any that is not pure and "true" black metal. Others will be able to enjoy the abilities of Old Man's Child that make "In Defiance of Existence" a good album.

As far as I'm concerned, "In Defiance of Existence" is a good album. It may be polished, and it may not scream blasphemy as loud as other black metal acts, but it's well written, and interesting. The song writing in particular is what keeps this thing afloat. Too much metal loses it's magic because there is a lack of transitions and an overall the structure is quite weak. Old Man's Child on the other hand have smooth transitions between each segment and the actually structure of the song is tight and well formulated.

As for the actual music, Old Man's Child has also done the job of entertaining me. The riffs and keyboards are quite fine. Galder and Jardar's work together can be quite spellbinding at times, and when Galder throws in keyboards it only strengthens the band. Keyboards are often overused and cheesy, but here they're done at an amount that makes them beneficial. There's even a bit of acoustic work here and there to keep things interesting.

Bottom Line: "In Defiance of Existence" is a quality "black" metal album. I'm not sure if I'd call it one of the best releases in its area of the year, but it's definitely something that fans of Old Man's Child last album will want to look into, as well as those that enjoy modern black metal.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 7
Production: 8
Originality: 6.5
Overall: 7

Rating: 7.3 out of 10