Review by Carl on December 15, 2023.

Alright, time to return to the icy and frost covered realms of 90's black metal. In 1997, Tyr, the only member of Norwegian black metal outfit Det Hedenske Folk, teamed up with his colleague Shane Rout from Australia, which isn't icy and frost covered at all if I have to believe the Crocodile Dundee movies. Now, frosty or not, this combination of blackened entities gave us an impressive split that ticks all the boxes needed you'd want from a 90's black metal split.

Up first comes the Norwegian delegation to this international black metal hoedown, Det Hedenske Folk (DHF from here on). With sole member Tyr at the helm, handling strings and vocals, and with none other than Abbath handling the drum duties, DHF deliver a good and healthy dose of black metal that has found a cozy spot between Immortal's "Pure Holocaust", Darkthrone's "Under a Funeral Moon" and the early Burzum output. The music plows on according to the tried and tested formula of tremelo-picked riffing and screamed vocals, poured into songs that alternate between blasting ferocity and more midtempo parts. It could be the knowledge that Abbath is providing the session percussion, but these 3 tracks do have more than a passing resemblance to the early Immortal records, which is no problem in my book. The natural sounding production puts the icing on this black and white cake, and thus we have 3 tracks of 90's black metal goodness. Original DHF aren't by a long shot, they deliver Norwegian black metal exactly the way grandma used to make, but it is done in a way that shows the majority of black metal pretenders (both then and now) how this type of shit needs to be done right.

After this crash course of "how to Norwegian black metal", we get the infamous Abyssic Hate (AH from here on). I'm going to have to admit that these are the only AH tracks I know, because I never felt the need to explore the band's further output. The most important reason for this is that I have seen AH get the 'depressive black metal' tag pressed on, something that does not interest me in the slightest. Kinda shortsighted of me, because if the rest of AH's output sounds like this, I should be reconsidering my stance, because this rips and tears with the best of 'em! The band plays pretty much in the same ballpark as DHF, with the only difference being that the influences here seem to come from the 1992 - 1994 era of (again) Darkthrone, the early works of (again) Burzum, but with Immortal's name changed by that of Graveland, especially the "Thousand Swords" album. Again the ingredients of tremelo-picked riffing, screamed vocals and songs that alternate frenetic rage with more epically inclined midtempo parts are present, but in execution these are played in a somewhat simpler way, with a less intricate style of riffing. It's again a showing of how 90's black is supposed to be done right, presented in an above average production for the style, without losing the raw edge a band like this absolutely needs. Another great effort by a perhaps not that original but highly effective Black metal act, for sure.

So there you have it, 2 bands both delivering a great dose of 90's black metal by Scandinavian recipe, devoid of pomp and niceties like keyboards and female vocals. Both can hardly be described as original, but they deliver the goods in admirable fashion. If your bag is 90's black metal, you can't afford to miss this lil' platter of tremelo-picked delight!

Rating: 9 out of 10