Review by Frost on January 2, 2022.

AN is a band I've never heard of and know nothing about. I don't even remember how I stumbled across them, but I do know that what graces my ears is pretty good stuff.

Just to put it out there, the Finns have, in my opinion, a pretty stellar track record in black metal and one of the best. Archgoat; Impaled Nazarene; Beherit; Satanic Warmaster; Horna – Finland has prominence in unleashing some of the most destructive, foreboding, evil music to fit snugly into the black metal genre. AN is a pretty obscure band from those shores. Revelation I: World Minus Population was released in 2005 on a label called Plague Productions and is their only full-length release so far.

Beyond the strange dark ambiance, industrial sounds, and distorted samples interspersed throughout most of this LPs thirty-five minute run time, these guys play a fairly straightforward style of black metal. This album contains six songs, and each one shares the same run time of 7:04, while the intro and outro tracks are 3:32 seconds each. The intro track, 'Solution...' is actually really good and it actually feels like a fully composed song even when there's only a small handful of riffs. It is lengthy and repetitive for an instrumental intro, but it engages for just enough to make the three minutes fly by in half the time. Don't know if the same can be said for the closer, '...Suicide', which just feels and sounds like static layered over a mostly bass heavy outro that dominates for the entire three minutes. It's wears on your nerves quick and the repetitive nature of it isn't nearly as effective as the opener, but I at least know what the band was going for after listening to the album multiple times.

The four songs sandwiched between the two apply titled 'Solution...' and '...Suicide' songs are pretty good, overall. My favorite track here is 'Let There Be Ebola Frost', which starts with a dismal minor chord and a driving mid-paced best that reminds of old-school, raw black metal of maybe old Burzum, Mayhem or Gorgoroth. There's only one solo I've found and it's at the back end of this song, but the way this album is produced makes it really hard to hear. If you do get a chance to hear it, it's a really solid solo, very well played. Speaking of Burzum, this album has a really fucking dark atmosphere. I think the effective use of samples, keyboards, and strange mechanical sound effects really lend it credibility to make it sound like a genocide or ethnic cleansing of some kind is happening. Oh, yeah. Human screams and gunfire at the beginning of 'Human Compost' and a smoldering fire followed by a really creepy acoustic riff. Pretty straightforward, if you ask me.

At the end of the day, this album is a great listen with a few problems, but nothing that ultimately cripples it. Recommended if you like your black metal a little atmospheric and a bit more misanthropic than others.

Favorite tracks:
'Solution...'
'Let There Be Ebola Frost'

Rating: 8 out of 10