Review by Vanass on April 11, 2020.

Elgibbor is a Polish (located in the US nowadays I believe) one-man project. Fire is a talented guy I have to admit, yet the raw production quality was always hard to swallow.

This album features some of the best tracks that I've encountered in recent times in the unblack scene. Unlike many artists in this genre who are just unable to write a decent riff and record their demos with the help of their mobile phones, Fire makes good use of the raw sound, which took me a while to understand.

Without a doubt, this is my favorite Elgibbor release. It features some pretty unique melodic elements combined with the atmospheric elements that result from the low production quality. If this were any other genre than black metal, I'd have dismissed it already as trash. Elgibbor, on the other hand, knows exactly what he is doing by applying this sound.

The riffs are not repetitive as I had expected, therefore it's is a little bit hard to characterize the exact sound of this album; there are tracks like 'The Sound of Your Voice' with the guitars having a mostly buzzing sound overlaid with melodic notes and tracks like 'Anchor' which can even be described as raw black 'n' roll. Fire tries to evoke a state mind, an atmosphere that is supposed to make you think about repenting, the Armageddon, forgiveness, spiritual war, etc. Fire, as an experienced musician and declared believer, managed to achieve exactly what he attempted to. His riffs are definitely not sloppy, technically well-performed and each had its purpose on this record.

Unusually, the drumming was quite enjoyable for a one-man project (in my personal opinion). A variety of tempos and beats can be found here and as expected he applied a faster tempo for the atmospheric parts and a quite groovy style of drumming here and there. I am positively surprised how good the mixing was and how well the drumming matched the guitars; definitely, something Fire can be proud of.

I am quite certain that this was Fire's best vocal performance and fits the whole atmosphere perfectly, almost drifting into depressive/suicidal black metal. He mastered the characteristic black metal vocals a long time ago but still remains at a lower range than vocalists like Hoest or Gaahl. Noticeably, the lyrics are Christian and therefore I would say that it is reasonable to distance this band from the depressive subgenre, although the atmosphere is at some points quite hypnotic and sorrowful. The lyrics are entirely Christian, but more enjoyable than most of unblack lyrics since they are not so militant and a bit more mature.

Not to waste any more words, buy Elgibbor's stuff if you are one of the few people on this planet that can actually digest pure rawness.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Vanass on April 11, 2020.

Elgibbor is a Polish (located in the US nowadays I believe) one-man project. Fire is a talented guy I have to admit, yet the raw production quality was always hard to swallow.

This album features some of the best tracks that I've encountered in recent times in the unblack scene. Unlike many artists in this genre who are just unable to write a decent riff and record their demos with the help of their mobile phones, Fire makes good use of the raw sound, which took me a while to understand.

Without a doubt, this is my favorite Elgibbor release. It features some pretty unique melodic elements combined with the atmospheric elements that result from the low production quality. If this were any other genre than black metal, I'd have dismissed it already as trash. Elgibbor, on the other hand, knows exactly what he is doing by applying this sound.

The riffs are not repetitive as I had expected, therefore it's is a little bit hard to characterize the exact sound of this album; there are tracks like 'The Sound of Your Voice' with the guitars having a mostly buzzing sound overlaid with melodic notes and tracks like 'Anchor' which can even be described as raw black 'n' roll. Fire tries to evoke a state mind, an atmosphere that is supposed to make you think about repenting, the Armageddon, forgiveness, spiritual war, etc. Fire, as an experienced musician and declared believer, managed to achieve exactly what he attempted to. His riffs are definitely not sloppy, technically well-performed and each had its purpose on this record.

Unusually, the drumming was quite enjoyable for a one-man project (in my personal opinion). A variety of tempos and beats can be found here and as expected he applied a faster tempo for the atmospheric parts and a quite groovy style of drumming here and there. I am positively surprised how good the mixing was and how well the drumming matched the guitars; definitely, something Fire can be proud of.

I am quite certain that this was Fire's best vocal performance and fits the whole atmosphere perfectly, almost drifting into depressive/suicidal black metal. He mastered the characteristic black metal vocals a long time ago but still remains at a lower range than vocalists like Hoest or Gaahl. Noticeably, the lyrics are Christian and therefore I would say that it is reasonable to distance this band from the depressive subgenre, although the atmosphere is at some points quite hypnotic and sorrowful. The lyrics are entirely Christian, but more enjoyable than most of unblack lyrics since they are not so militant and a bit more mature.

Not to waste any more words, buy Elgibbor's stuff if you are one of the few people on this planet that can actually digest pure rawness.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Review by Felix on June 2, 2020.

How many songs do we hear during our metal fan existence? 1.000 per year on average? And how many of them keep sticking in the mind? One percent? Two, three? The older I become, the less it gets. Thus, each and every song that enters our long-term memory can be considered as something special. Based on this premise, the opening title track of Hordes of Chaos is something special. I don’t know whether it gets the award for the best Kreator song of the 21st century, but it makes one thing pretty clear. 'Hordes of Chaos' (the tune) proves evidence that vehemence and catchiness are not mutually exclusive. Kreator, and unfortunately that’s no matter of course, avoid any form of polished cheesiness, but especially the chorus with its deeply digging “everyone against everyone” line develops an amazing long-term effect. The liaison of repetition and insanity, performed by Mille in top form, is mind-boggling. Kreator sound like a young entity in rage and this is the best a thrash formation can do, at least since the invention of the Araya’s scream in “Evil Has No Boundaries”.

The killer at the beginning of Kreator’s work from 2009 makes me forget the weak moments of the album. Don’t worry, there are only a few number of these moments, for example the slack first tones of 'Amok Run' (Mille’s vocals fail to do the calm sequence justice) or the useless intermezzo 'Corpses of Liberty' (is this a hidden homage to Janis Joplin, the thrash metal translation of her “freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose” creed?). Furthermore, non-musical components suck. The artwork is embarrassing and stereotyped, while the lyrics hammer in my head that I will never share Mille’s weltanschauung. However, the music makes up for this. In general, the dudes let steam off and they do it experienced yet energetic, technically precise yet (more or less) wild and traditionally thrashing yet fresh. The tailor-made and coherent compositions profit from a transparent, powerful sound that delivers metal, not plastic. Kreator fire some well-formed riffs into the crowd without falling victim to self-quotation. Only the beginning of the strong 'Escalation' reminds me of 'Nonconformist', but this is surely just a coincidence in view of the rather inconspicuous existence of this song from Outcast.

It feels good to experience that the machine-like precision of the band’s performance does not lead to a sterile overall picture. Especially the racy and aggressive 'War Curse', the dark 'Absolute Misanthropy' with its mix of furious and menacing sequences or Ventor’s flattening bass drums in the chorus of the constantly growing 'To the Afterborn' show that Kreator haven’t lost much of their former relevance. Naturally, the quartet has the typical handicap of a long-standing formation. In view of all these years they are already in business, the dudes are not able to recreate the wow effect of Pleasure to Kill or Flag of Hate. But it does not matter that both the song formula and the general direction of the band are more or less well known as long as a new album holds a couple of outstanding tracks and this is exactly the case here. Okay, with regard to the technical accuracy the title Hordes of Chaos might be misleading. But who cares about such details? Those of you who like to listen to non-chaotic, mature thrashers will join the "hordes" that already had a good time with this full-length.

Rating: 8.2 out of 10