Some people out there will call Belgium’s NARTVIND debut CD horrible, primitive noise, but at least in my opinion Black Metal should not sound too clean and produced. This kind of music is at its best, when it sounds spontaneous and unpolished, because only then Black Metal creates this intense, authentic feeling I love about it – the hatred, the blasphemy, the darkness and despair are the most genuine, the most honest then. “Until Their Ruin” follows exactly this tradition, in fact it sounds like a rehearsal banned on CD and I like that very much! The eight songs (plus intro) have an epic, cold and misanthropic atmosphere comparable to older JUDAS ISCARIOT, early DARKTHRONE and fortunately offer enough speedy parts to avoid sounding monotonous. With track seven ‘Flowing Blood’ there is even a small future classic to be discovered on “Until Their Ruin”. Other song titles like ‘Blitzkrieg’, ‘War Propaganda’ or ‘Black Metal Mist’ might sound a bit silly, but fuck it, NARTVIND have created an album that has all the necessary features of an excellent Black Metal CD and thus deserves to become a part of every serious Black Metal collection. Get it on LP or CD whatever or end in ‘Valleys Of Extermination’, aarrghhh! For additional information surf to www.painkiller-records.com.