Friends of raw and primitive sounds should already be familiar with Swedish old school maniac DEVIL LEE ROT and his projects PAGAN RITES and AUTOPSY TORMENT. All three acts have certain parallels to old BATHORY with the single difference that PAGAN RITES add a certain MAYHEM – touch and darker feel to this basic concept, AUTOPSY TORMENT have more Thrash and Death Metal elements and DEVIL LEE ROT has a pretty hard rockin’, more melodic vibe. Their side of this nicely layouted split LP contains four new songs offering catchy licks, lots of 80s Heavy Metal feel and an inescapable drive which should make you bang at instant. Certainly 110% retro-stuff and rather unoriginal, but definitely very effective and entertaining. I even prefer the four DLR songs presented here to what the master did lately with PAGAN RITES and AUTOPSY TORMENT, so two thumbs up for his side of this LP!!! NORTHERN DARKNESS which no one really seems to know anything about also worship good ol’ BATHORY and fit quite good on a split with DEVIL LEE ROT, yet they do not go for a blackened Heavy Metal approach, but whisk "The Return" with a few "Hammerheart" moments. What annoys me is the fact that the man solely doing this project uses a drumming machine, which – as you might know from my other attacks at programmed drums – is something I usually dislike very much. With NORTHERN DARKNESS it is more or less the same though their 1996 recorded songs are definitely not bad and should be pretty cool tracks for fans of MORRIGAN / MAYHEMIC TRUTH, IUVENES and of course the original! If you like it unsophisticated, abrasive and simple and have a soft spot for BATHORY this might be a nice piece of vinyl for your collection, it comes with a lyrics sheet, an excellent layout (which has become typical for I Hate Records, I think) and is limited on 500 copies. More infos on www.ihaterecords.cjb.net.