Review by Felix on May 18, 2023.

When I am asked about the popularity of Nattverd, I always answer that it should be higher. But normally nobody asks me about it. That's why I'll say frankly and without being asked: the popularity of Norway’s Nattverd should be higher. With three solid to good full-lengths under their belly, they have already shown their general competence. Now comes their fourth work called I Helvetes Forakt and it definitely does not stand in the shadow of its predecessors. Okay, maybe Nattverd’s approach is pretty generic and very typical for a Norwegian band. Former formations like Mactätus, Old Man’s Child or Svartahrid did / do not sound completely different, to say it this way. But who cares? I am not interested in uniqueness, but in good music and I Helvetes Forakt houses great compositions.

The album shows its full glory whenever the band lets its energy flow freely. 'Vandring I Elver Av Blod' presents a dark mood right from the beginning. It soon gains tempo and larger-than-fjords guitar lines spread pure and sinister enthusiasm. The excellent production supports the dense atmosphere of this dynamic and partly creepy piece. No doubt, this song is a jewel of Northern black metal art – and it is not the only one. 'Forbannet Vaere' leaves a trail of destruction right from the beginning, but even here Nattverd intersperses a few melodic guitar lines. This is intensive high class metal, not without drama and great emotions, but always with full force. Infantile gimmicks are not needed, the highlights of the album show the entire beauty of adult yet merciless blackness.

Apart from the highlights, Nattverd do not follow this comparatively brutal approach permanently. Don’t worry, the somewhat kitschy artwork does not indicate the musical content. Sticky sounds do not appear, this is no Italian “power” metal, haha. The band always keeps an eye on basic harshness, even though sometimes the melodies gain the upper hand. The actually attacking opener suffers from acoustic breaks. Howling of wolves included! You see, the band is not totally immune against some stereotypes. Moreover, I do not fully understand 'Elvedjuved' with its rocking rhythms at the beginning and a playtime of only two minutes. Satan should criminalize black metal songs with a length of less than four minutes, they mostly lack depth and atmosphere. 'Elvedjuved', maybe a kind of experiment, cannot absolve itself from this as well, although it is not a bad song. Anyway, the mid-paced, Burzum-influenced tremolo picking of the following eight minute monument called 'I Moerke Skip Innover' comes much closer to my ideal vision of black metal. So we have reached the final song and it is time for a summary, right? I Helvetes Forakt is an album which grows on the listener, at least in my case. It delivers properly arranged black metal with a subliminally morbid touch. Yes, it is not absolutely free from run-of-the-mill sections, but they are the exception to the rule and maybe some standards are simply necessary. Therefore, I think this work should increase the popularity of its creators, but my life experience (54 years, f**k) tells me something different.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10

Review by Fran on January 20, 2024.

Culto Negro’s blackened thrash proposal is raw and oldschool but well executed, at least that’s how their first EP was recorded. For this release they opted for an even rawer production style which is fine by me (guitars sound even better on this release) but there’s some dissonance between the guitars in some riffs, like one of the two guitarists isn’t nailing the riff right. After this release one of the guitarists was fired, perhaps there’s some relation between those facts. This dirtier sound puts more black metal into the band’s tag and composition wise they exploited it too, for example they use more continuous blast beat sections like the ending of the first song but the main music themes are generally written over a double bass speed metal beat. In some way, the sketchy guitar tracks and the dirtier production overall gives the band a “live” feel which I also prefer but the sloppy guitar playing is just not convincing and probably the biggest flaw of the album in general, that it’s still not bad for a demo.

The album begins with noise from all the instruments and you can feel those huge guitars since then, drumming is super tight and vocals are sung over an unorthodox out of tempo style but are covered with such a wet delay that the echoes cover the lack of rhythm from the vocal lines, sounding like a fucking evil and devilish whisper. The vocal style is a high pitched shriek, so the hissing sound of consonants distorted by the delay is super harsh. The bass guitar is also distorted, finger picked round tone but the slight distortion they used on it helps it cut through the mix perfectly. Guitar leads sound amazing, there’s a Slayerish floyd rose solo on track 3 that really stands out and sounds killer.

Lyrics are very interesting, if you know spanish you can understand at least something in spite of the odd vocalization and the exaggerated effects. Some of the lines have really lots of impact individually, you don’t need to understand the full context to get the message... well thought lyrics. Despite its technical flaws I like this production better than the one on their previous effort, ironically. What I dislike are the little but heardable mistakes on some guitar tracks...

Rating: 7.8 out of 10