Review by Denis on December 5, 2002.

Warning: Avoid drinking or driving while listening to this CD because you'll never come back alive... If you are not involved with those activities while listening, you'll never be the same again! Please be seated to avoid fainting.

Was this music I just listened for real? I don't know! Was it composed and played by human beings? I'm not sure! Something tells me the actual CD was traded for a recording from a foreign galaxy and it really was a message depicting the life from outer space. Too bad no visuals were included. You know what else I should say? Wow! This is awesomely great stuff!

Being actually a re-release of their debut album, the band did totally remixed it, added effects and re-recorded the synthesizers. Since I didn't hear the original version I can only say that it feels like the beautiful girl next door turned into a top model!

There is for sure a good devil watching over me and directing me towards infernal jewels on my musical quest. I'm amazed, stunned and thrilled with my first encounter with this superior form of intelligence called The Kovenant. This outstanding musical achievement is like a book, every song being a rich chapter and I have the feeling when I'm listening to a song that I'm trying to read the whole chapter at once! So incredibly intricate, intriguing and fulfilling that my ears are salving with pleasure! Each song is as euphoric and grandiose as the last one. Add to this an uninterrupted listening caused by keys / sampling interludes that don't leave you the time to take your breath unless you press on the pause button!

This is what I would call a sophisticated Symphonic Avant-garde Black Metal. Looks like the devil brought all his hell angels in heaven and thus will you all rest my metal lover friends after being carried away with this overwhelming wave of sounds and genuine creativity. Not being a big fan or expert in the Black Metal realm this album opened my mind and my willingness to find more treasures is only greater now. The Black vocals are part of the scenery and not the main element in this gorgeous landscape so you don't have the feeling that a wild cat is jumping in your face while admiring the Grand Canyon! Ten great pieces all of them thick with beauties and magical keyboard notes and sounds over a relentless metal section that will instantly hook you by their majestic and phantomatic attractions. My only problem with this album is to give a list of my favorites. I can only give you some directions towards those that made a deeper impression in my neurons. Even if the pace is usually pretty fast, a couple of slower numbers like ‘The Dark Conquest’ had an extra sense of mysticism and also the scary vocals are really a chilling experience worthy to be mentioned. Some of the most strange keyboards partitions give a quite Avant-garde feel to ‘From the Storm of Shadows’. Doom passages and great guitar riffs are on the menu with ‘Through the Eyes of the Raven’. The keyboards throughout this album are simply grandiose and one can only be delighted by the partitions found on the title track.

Bottom Line: I shall let Lex Icon telling you the final last words: "Now sit back and enjoy our earliest mischief, in the bizarre world of True Norwegian Black Metal".

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 10
Atmosphere: 10
Originality: 10
Production: 10
Overall: 10

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review by Denis on December 5, 2002.

Warning: Avoid drinking or driving while listening to this CD because you'll never come back alive... If you are not involved with those activities while listening, you'll never be the same again! Please be seated to avoid fainting.

Was this music I just listened for real? I don't know! Was it composed and played by human beings? I'm not sure! Something tells me the actual CD was traded for a recording from a foreign galaxy and it really was a message depicting the life from outer space. Too bad no visuals were included. You know what else I should say? Wow! This is awesomely great stuff!

Being actually a re-release of their debut album, the band did totally remixed it, added effects and re-recorded the synthesizers. Since I didn't hear the original version I can only say that it feels like the beautiful girl next door turned into a top model!

There is for sure a good devil watching over me and directing me towards infernal jewels on my musical quest. I'm amazed, stunned and thrilled with my first encounter with this superior form of intelligence called The Kovenant. This outstanding musical achievement is like a book, every song being a rich chapter and I have the feeling when I'm listening to a song that I'm trying to read the whole chapter at once! So incredibly intricate, intriguing and fulfilling that my ears are salving with pleasure! Each song is as euphoric and grandiose as the last one. Add to this an uninterrupted listening caused by keys / sampling interludes that don't leave you the time to take your breath unless you press on the pause button!

This is what I would call a sophisticated Symphonic Avant-garde Black Metal. Looks like the devil brought all his hell angels in heaven and thus will you all rest my metal lover friends after being carried away with this overwhelming wave of sounds and genuine creativity. Not being a big fan or expert in the Black Metal realm this album opened my mind and my willingness to find more treasures is only greater now. The Black vocals are part of the scenery and not the main element in this gorgeous landscape so you don't have the feeling that a wild cat is jumping in your face while admiring the Grand Canyon! Ten great pieces all of them thick with beauties and magical keyboard notes and sounds over a relentless metal section that will instantly hook you by their majestic and phantomatic attractions. My only problem with this album is to give a list of my favorites. I can only give you some directions towards those that made a deeper impression in my neurons. Even if the pace is usually pretty fast, a couple of slower numbers like ‘The Dark Conquest’ had an extra sense of mysticism and also the scary vocals are really a chilling experience worthy to be mentioned. Some of the most strange keyboards partitions give a quite Avant-garde feel to ‘From the Storm of Shadows’. Doom passages and great guitar riffs are on the menu with ‘Through the Eyes of the Raven’. The keyboards throughout this album are simply grandiose and one can only be delighted by the partitions found on the title track.

Bottom Line: I shall let Lex Icon telling you the final last words: "Now sit back and enjoy our earliest mischief, in the bizarre world of True Norwegian Black Metal".

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 10
Atmosphere: 10
Originality: 10
Production: 10
Overall: 10

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review by Alex on January 22, 2019.

Profanatica's Altar of the Virgin Whore sees the band emerge with a fresh sound possessing a more detailed mixing and mastering effort compared to that of their past releases that were particularly turbid to some degree. There is a considerably more distinguishing identity to Profanatica’s music now resulting from this refined audible tuning. More detail is presented therefore giving the songs a glossy appeal. Though having heard their 2016 full-length effort The Curling Flame of Blasphemy, the need to delve deeper into their material was never there and never did present itself after multiple listens. The problem with the record is it tried to incorporate too many styles at once resulting in a more experimental release that ruined the whole black/death metal vibe at least for me. However, with this 19 minute Ep, Altar of the Virgin Whore, Profanatica returns to their traditional method of playing, in addition the sound has been ramped-up to accommodate the doomy style often present in their compositions. This new production possesses the potency required to keep the drive of the music engaging; with lots of HM-2 pedal distortion taking place, it will surely appeal to many that enjoy the early to mid-90s death metal sound.

Altar of the Virgin Whore is more reminiscent of their 1991 demo Weeping in Heaven; It has that barbaric style of drumming often times heard as a trademark of the genre, guitar work that flows like an under-current providing a warped layer to accompany the gannet-esque vocals and beefy drum sound. Some of the band’s back catalog is highly regarded within the community as influential and indeed pioneering at times, so for them to release a record within that vein should come as a pleasing surprise to many. Tracks like “Conceived With Sin” and “Prayer in Eclipse” are composed such that they do justice to the cover artwork in conjuring an air of animated desecration. They establish early on how far the band has come since producing music and scriptures of this sort. There are still segments of black/doom metal to be heard throughout the record that adds a bit more depth to the Ep. Also to be found on Altar of the Virgin Whore are guitar riffs that date back to an early period within the death metal scene giving the Ep a strong dose of nostalgia. Though the leads are repetitive at times, they invoke a condensed atmosphere that hovers above each song like a shadow. Another notable quality displayed on Altar of the Virgin Whore is the confident stride it has moving from one entry to another. The fabric therefore provokes a direct and bonding message that thoroughly oversees the produce. With short and effective interludes being strategically placed, the bond each track shares can be heard. As a collective, the band played very surgically; meticulous thought seemed to have played a leading role in the formation of the record as opposed to their 2016 album.

I honestly think this is the sound Profanatica should keep for future releases, and as a band signed to Hells Headbangers for 12 years, earns them the right to obtain the most suitable production of their effort. Altar of the Virgin Whore is an Ep that should please supporters of old. It has the ancient craftsmanship signatures of Profanatica matched with a most detailed yet organic mix and master.

Saint by day, slut by night:

• "Conceived With Sin"
• "Prayer in Eclipse"
• "Sacred Code Broken"

Rating: 7.8 out of 10