"The Lord is proud to unleash some true, filthy Norwegian black metal from the depths of sodom. Urgehal is brutal, demented and blasphemous Black Metal that is guaranteed to piss off any poser into Cradle of Shit, or Demon Burger. Beastly and cold black metal for fans of Dissection, Mayhem, and Immortal. 4 Live bonus tracks that are as primitive and fukked as you can possibly get."

That says it all, does it not? Well, if you need more prompting, read these words: Urgehal play a brand of Black Metal that has more in common with Thrash Metal than Death Metal in terms of savagery. Keyboards are sacrificed (in the name of EVIL!) for an all guitar attack and this definitely adds impact to the music. The drumming is blast-friendly without sounding too, too triggered for much of the album, although the bass guitar is less than in your face, only standing out here and again. The guitars and almost decipherable Black Metal vocals are the focus of this Herculean effort and both shred without fear. Occasional lead guitars effectively punctuate the riff madness.

Early Immortal is perhaps the easiest comparison to make here but fans of no frills Black Metal will be thrilled to spin this massive platter and its 15 tracks in 78+ minutes. Keep in mind that this album still clocks in at almost an hour (~56 minutes) without the almost gratuitous live tracks! Other frames of reference to Urgehal include Bathory and Venom but with much better production. If you like any of the aforementioned bands, this is clearly for you. Visit The Lord and get some killer underground Black Metal for cheap. Stand out track: "Dead Cold December." Crushing.

[Note: Enzifer looks quite ridiculous on the album cover and in the album liner notes with his semi-Hellraiser headgear (think Pinhead with much bigger nails), but then this is Black Metal and corpsepaint is commonplace so something must be employed to set one apart from the pack. In the humble opinion of this writer, image is the worst part of this genre. Additionally, this album loses half of a point (and some power) because of its considerable length.]

written by Tony Belcher

Playing time: 78.32