What shall I say? All this sounds kind of uniform to me. Almost all the songs on this record start off with blast-beats. No variation whatsoever. It is the third track (‘Jumalviha’), the seventh one (‘Herramme On Saapuva’) and the ninth one (‘Suicide Manifesto’) that begin providing a bit of variation. Hmmm, I call this awkward initial blasting without alteration the DARK FUNERAL phenomenon. What about the music? I think Finland-based CALVARIUM offer medium-quality Black Metal. The components: vocals – extreme, frantic, hysteric. Just the way I like it. I mean the singer isn’t unique, but he sounds possessed and that’s cool! The guitars – this component is by far the best part of this recording! They’re tight, aggressive, razor-sharp, mean and everything. The melodies, at least partially, sound like DARK FUNERAL, maybe a bit of SETHERIAL, IN BATTLE and the likes. When CALVARIUM play open chords they sometimes remind me of old SATYRICON and BURZUM records, which is not too bad. There are these really fast shredded chords with minor melodies laid over them. So all this is very typical, yet decent. The drums sound cool recording-wise, but honestly, in tracks like ‘Death Worship’ the drummer really seemed to be unmotivated and sloppy, trying to get done with the track, especially at the end. Hey – you are the pulse of band, mate! The bass sounds alright to me. I like the slight distortion on it. Every once in a while there are synths adding the obligatory spherical bit… not too intriguing if you ask me. I personally like the more moderate (???) tracks on this output ’cause there CALVARIUM really show strength and originality. In such moments they remind me of BATHORY (although the queer vocals are missing), which is a true pleasure. Good record showing potential for sure. But rather mediocre still. This could change in the future, folks. Further info: www.calvarium.com