It’s great to see that the Black Metal scene is finally giving birth to some really cool releases again after its big sellout period a couple of years ago. This massive media attention not only resulted in incredible sales numbers and the origin of several Black Metal “superstars” (no need to mention any names here), it also infiltrated a once so misanthropic, blasphemous and harsh musical genre, turning it into a poppy Gothic inspired chart phenomenon. Well, the annoying mainstream attention is luckily mostly gone by now (and currently obviously a lot more concerned to focus on Goregrind / Death Metal), so that really creative musicians can finally compose their music with their black hearts again (instead of thinking of their cheque books all the time). The second album by Sweden’s CRAFT for example is definitely one of the best that I got my hands on recently, along with the debuts by GRAVEN, ARMAGEDDA, 1349 or MORRIGAN (to name just a few). These guys proof everyone of you wrong who still judge the quality of sinister Black Metal by the non existing poor sound quality. The worse, the better? Not in this case though. CRAFT have managed to come up with an almost DARKTHRONE inspired raw writing style and combined that with good musicianship and a proper production. Kinda like Norways KHOLD, but a lot more intense and eerie sounding. The album’s cover artwork comes in the usual black and white style, without a band logo and just features a picture of the band’s guitarist / bassplayer Joakim in the most possible underground vein. It actually was that picture which caught my attention and got me interested in CRAFT’s music as it seemed to capture the right feeling already. And it does! This is a really fine example of raw, Scandinavian Black Metal, very close to the originators of the second generation of bands that started out along with DARKTHRONE’s “A Blaze In The Northern Sky” – just better produced! Highly recommended!!! For all further information check out the interview or contact the label: www.selbstmord.nu