Review by Felix on April 28, 2019.

Lord Belial are still active? Well, is this really necessary? Don't get me wrong, they never became disloyal to the spirit of more or less extreme metal, but they also mostly failed in order to produce an outstanding work. Seen from this perspective, The Black Curse marks a pretty typical work of the Swedes. The vast majority of the songs passes by without leaving a lasting impression. Yet there is at least one exception.

"Ascension of Lilith" combines all the trademarks Lord Belial want to stand for. Memorable guitar lines, powerful drumming, expressive vocal lines, demonic background vocals and an intense overall picture. Although the track crosses the seven-minutes-mark and does not lack different layers or tempos, it keeps its traceability from the beginning to the end without being boring in any way. Thus, the band delivers a little gem of melodic yet punchy black metal. Too bad that this remains an isolated case. Lord Belial seem to suffer from compositional deficiencies, because so many parts of the other songs remain relatively faceless. The good, transparent and vigorous production - including a powerful bass guitar - tries to showcase the greatness of the material, but you cannot make a racehorse out of a hamster. Okay, this comparison might be slightly unfair. Yet it is true (in my humble opinion): Lord Belial regularly fail to transform their talent into great songs and thus one listens to an ambitious album of habitual underperformers. Indeed, sometimes it seems as if the band wants simply too much. "Unorthodox Catharsis", to give but one example, starts promisingly with respect to its hammering beginning. A nasty and ominous intermezzo convinces as well, but a few pretty mild sections cause a loss of strength. At the end of the day, the song sounds pretty okay, but that's not enough in order to withstand the competition.

With the mix of a black metal frame and some tradition-conscious heavy metal sections, the band is caught between two stools. I don't want to say that the album suffers from a lack of coherence, but I know definitely more homogeneous outputs. And there is another thing that annoys me. The drumming sounds pretty sterile, especially during the fast parts. Each and every rapid sequence seems to be offered in the identical velocity. Flops like "Inexorable Retribution" make the picture complete. The band needs an expert that connects the different parts of their songs skillfully, because this is exactly where the only songwriter Thomas Backelin shows significant weaknesses. Not to mention a few really lame sections every now and then.

However, perhaps there is a hungry target group that appreciates precisely the mix of narrative sections, mild melodies, double bass carpets, a couple of robust riffs that are accompanied by a pumping bass ("Devilish Enlightenment") and robotic snare hammering. I have heard that there even exist some dudes who like Manowar, but I am sure that's a vicious lie. Either way, my advice for Lord Belial is to focus on more logical, but not predictable song patterns or to call it a day.

Rating: 5.6 out of 10

Review by Anna on June 14, 2009.

My first reaction to Bahimiron's "Southern Nihilizm" was "Ugh", as I saw the bad case of corpsepaint on the back cover. Immediately pessimistic, I did not look forward to listening to this album at all. However, as it started playing, I did not find myself cringing as I had suspected I would.
After an 'eerie' attempt at an intro complete with screaming girls, a medley of razor-sharp guitars ensued, accompanied by echoed vocals with a little too much variation- a monster-like low to a nice gritty high, and average drums that don't do anything interesting but at least to my relief, switch things up every once in a while. The sound is tinny and relatively treble-heavy, as was likely the intention. The riffs are decent, speed-picked "one-liners" typical of black metal. The melodies and aggression is reminiscent of 90s, "un-Norwegian" Black Metal, loosely comparable to the feelings conjured by early-Marduk (Ahhh... the good old days!), especially on say, track six, 'Pillz And 90 Proof' (haha, witty spelling... I suppose it matches the song titles 'Halo Of Fliez' and 'Southern Nihilizm'...).
The vocalist seems to still be experimenting with what works, or he's just throwing in 'the works' thinking or hoping it will sound evil to the max. Though a bit ridiculous, this medley of hideous utterings illuminates a fundamental aspect of Black Metal- a balance of hilarious yet serious. The song structures could stand to be tightened and the amount of musical variation restricted and fine-tuned. I feel a further limiting of the melodies in the guitars would enhance things a bit. There's just too much crazy shit going on- demonic-sounding samples, wierd vocal add-ins, crazy guitar shit here and there... which overall makes the album sound sloppy. This is where I take away most of the points. I do however appreciate the chants which have an etherial air, creating a "possessed" reaction within the listener. They are perhaps the one thing that make Bahimiron stand out from others of this style, though that could stand to be refined as well.
Though there is much room for improvement, this brings me back to my teenage years of discovering the underworld of Black Metal. This album is pretty straight-forward fast Black Metal with no keyboards and no clean-vocals (discluding the chants which I classify as atmosphere). It's the head-nodding, hands in pockets, grimace-faced, "no mosh" stuff.
If you don't know what I mean by this, well, I suppose the answer is somewhere on the Internet by now... "Southern Nihilizm", in my book, is an alright Black Metal album short of amazing, and a nice trip down memory lane.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 6
Atmosphere: 7.5
Production: 6
Originality: 5.5
Overall: 6.25

Rating: 6.25 out of 10