It seems the Lord of Darkness himself has spoken through this unholy trio delivering a real masterpiece of Swedish Black Metal blending the epic melodies and riffing of DISSECTION, the raw aggression of DARKTHRONE / old MAYHEM with a unique talent in creating morbid, sacrilegious moods. Whereas a lot of Swedish bands abandoned the left hand path and turned either cheesy Melodic Death or the standard DARK FUNERAL / MARDUK-like “Black” Metal, WATAIN still possess the viciousness and dark hatred one today seldom finds in the mainstream of extreme Metal. WATAIN do not make the fault to go full speed all the time, but skilfully vary between fast parts and slower paced sections – ‘I Am The Earth’, ‘Puzzles Ov Flesh’ or ‘Casus Luciferi’ are good examples for that. I’ve recently bought the LP version from N.E.D. and as soon as you take a look into the booklet and discover the sinister artwork it contains, you get a good impression of the special atmosphere WATAIN manage to implement in their music and lyrics. And speaking of the lyrics, WATAIN’s words are true sermons to the infernal one, written with passion and dark spirit that gives me the creeps each time I read some of those incredible lines. WATAIN’s newest work is musically not an album offering something new or original, but it takes the elements of the aforementioned paragons and fills them with pitch black devotion to the genre, its topics and ideals and thus offers an absorbing album with lyrical depth and musical feat. With bands like WATAIN, FUNERAL MIST, DÖDFÖDD, ARMAGEDDA, SVARTSYN even the Swedish scene has acts who still know which intensity and fascination Black Metal can put about and I can only hope that everyone into serious Black Metal music that does not sound like a guy, a drum PC, a badly played guitar and a cassette recorder supports these bands. WATAIN’s website can be found here www.grimrune.com/watain/ and the links to the labels Drakkar Productions for the CD version and Norma Evangelium Diaboli for the LP are there as well. Check it out!