Review by Vladimir on July 8, 2023.

This review might be an interesting one, because for this occasion I will be “time traveling” all the way back to 1999. The topic of today’s discussion is the German black metal band Dies Ater and their debut album Reign Of Tempests. Although Reign Of Tempests was originally released in July 1999 via Mordgrimm label, the album was re-released on May 5th this year via Northern Silence Productions, which will also include 6 tracks taken from their 1996 demo Rabenflug. Although I am usually not interested in reviewing reissued or re-released albums, I decided to give this one a go since it’s always nice to see some form of revival when it comes to older bands and their earliest material, especially if it’s coming from the golden age of the 90’s.

Reign Of Tempests begins with an instrumental intro '...Das Erwachen Der Nacht', a beautiful ambient track consisted of very emotional keyboards and pianos, which felt quite nostalgic for me. The track managed to remind me why I fell in love with so many classic 90’s black metal albums which would begin with these amazing intros as a nice build up. As the intro ends, the second track 'King Of Tempests' starts with blast-beats and tremolo picking from the very get-go, while also throwing some melodies and symphonic keyboards as sweet cherry and icing on the top. The harsh vocals join along during the mid-tempo verse, nicely backed up by some tremolo lead guitars. Although the first two tracks were a nice start which promised a lot, the rest of the album fulfilled that promise with each following song.

So many tracks on this album radiate this grandiose feeling of ambience and beauty, which is a result of incorporating all these amazing melodies, symphonic keyboards and nice acoustic guitars which are present on 'Engelsnacht', 'Der Schwur', 'Der Fluch Der Seele'. 'Der Schwur' in particular serves as an interlude track between each half of the album, which is just acoustic guitars, sounds of a medieval battle that was probably taken from a movie and some spoken words in harsh vocalization. The last two tracks 'Rabenflug' and 'Das Geleit...' give the last bit of beauty and beast to create such emotions by adding female singing vocals by Johanna Sadonis. Production-wise it’s a very good sounding album with a mild rawness added to the guitars, which may be some of the better sounding black metal albums from that mid to late 90’s era.

The album could be considered as a product of its time, but I think that after 24 years it still holds up with its overall quality, even though it came around the time when black metal was beginning to drastically modernize while entering a new millennium. I highly suggest that fans of oldschool black metal check out Reign Of Tempests, re-released on May 5th along with the bonus tracks taken from the Rabenflug demo.

Rating: 8.8 out of 10

Review by Vladimir on July 8, 2023.

This review might be an interesting one, because for this occasion I will be “time traveling” all the way back to 1999. The topic of today’s discussion is the German black metal band Dies Ater and their debut album Reign Of Tempests. Although Reign Of Tempests was originally released in July 1999 via Mordgrimm label, the album was re-released on May 5th this year via Northern Silence Productions, which will also include 6 tracks taken from their 1996 demo Rabenflug. Although I am usually not interested in reviewing reissued or re-released albums, I decided to give this one a go since it’s always nice to see some form of revival when it comes to older bands and their earliest material, especially if it’s coming from the golden age of the 90’s.

Reign Of Tempests begins with an instrumental intro '...Das Erwachen Der Nacht', a beautiful ambient track consisted of very emotional keyboards and pianos, which felt quite nostalgic for me. The track managed to remind me why I fell in love with so many classic 90’s black metal albums which would begin with these amazing intros as a nice build up. As the intro ends, the second track 'King Of Tempests' starts with blast-beats and tremolo picking from the very get-go, while also throwing some melodies and symphonic keyboards as sweet cherry and icing on the top. The harsh vocals join along during the mid-tempo verse, nicely backed up by some tremolo lead guitars. Although the first two tracks were a nice start which promised a lot, the rest of the album fulfilled that promise with each following song.

So many tracks on this album radiate this grandiose feeling of ambience and beauty, which is a result of incorporating all these amazing melodies, symphonic keyboards and nice acoustic guitars which are present on 'Engelsnacht', 'Der Schwur', 'Der Fluch Der Seele'. 'Der Schwur' in particular serves as an interlude track between each half of the album, which is just acoustic guitars, sounds of a medieval battle that was probably taken from a movie and some spoken words in harsh vocalization. The last two tracks 'Rabenflug' and 'Das Geleit...' give the last bit of beauty and beast to create such emotions by adding female singing vocals by Johanna Sadonis. Production-wise it’s a very good sounding album with a mild rawness added to the guitars, which may be some of the better sounding black metal albums from that mid to late 90’s era.

The album could be considered as a product of its time, but I think that after 24 years it still holds up with its overall quality, even though it came around the time when black metal was beginning to drastically modernize while entering a new millennium. I highly suggest that fans of oldschool black metal check out Reign Of Tempests, re-released on May 5th along with the bonus tracks taken from the Rabenflug demo.

Rating: 8.8 out of 10

Review by Felix on May 9, 2019.

Liege Lord from Stamford belonged to the likeable fools who thought it is sufficient to release simply good music in order to become a well-known and respected band. How naive! They never took care of a unique image and Burn to My Touch provides the painful evidence that they even did not understand the importance of an adequate artwork. Of course, many pioneering formations were not immune against kitschy fantasy covers, but this anti-aesthetic, multi-colored crime almost takes the cake. I am always at risk to lose my sight whenever I take a close look at it. However, the real tragic here is that the vinyl did not even house good music.

It is therefore definitely not the guilt of the awful artwork that the second album of the band has remained the weak point of its short existence. The playtime of only 30 minutes indicates either a production which came to soon or a lack of ideas - and unfortunately, these alternatives are not musically exclusive. The brief numbers cannot be deemed as insubstantial, but great ideas are missing as well. Most songs do not show a central theme, they are not driven by bulky riffs, nevertheless, they are far away from any kind of earworm. The entire A side leaves a pretty lackluster, somehow ill-defined impression. The comparatively lackadaisical pieces do no harm, but where is the drive of songs such as "Wielding Iron Fists" or "Dark Tale"? Especially these tracks pushed the debut on a pretty good level. Here we just have a collection of unimaginative numbers that pass by like a shy child. I thought that the band likes to perform further songs that knock on the door of thrash, but here we have mid-paced run-of-the-mill metal with some epic, traditional and mystic elements. And the fact that the lead vocalist has an affinity for relatively thin high-pitched screams does not make things better as well.

I am quite sure that Liege Lord did not lack integrity. Furthermore, the instrumental has some solidly galloping guitars and the opener of the B side, "Black Lit Knights", reveals more edges and corners than the complete first half. These are just two examples that Liege Lord still know how to write pretty decent tracks. Nevertheless, the feeble (low-budget?) production allies itself with the more or less unimposing material and so Liege Lord were sidelined by the strong and countless competitors of these times. That's a pity, because the really strong closer "Speed of Sound" with its memorable chorus and its swift drumming illustrates that it would have been possible to pen a much better full-length. But Liege Lord tried to play a strange form of powerless power metal and missed the chance to take the next level after their promising debut. Not to mention their masterpiece Master Control with another lead vocalist and much more aggressive tunes. Don't think that Burn to My Touch will make your day, solely because Master Control has entered your heavy rotation. Despite its name, the here reviewed work has absolutely no fiery details and therefore I only recommend it to those freaks who cannot sleep until their Liege Lord collection is complete.

Rating: 5.4 out of 10