Review by Alex on December 12, 2019.

Heavily influenced by Profanatica and Archgoat; Goatblood, propelled by the German duo of Reverend Slayer and Satanic Death Vulva, release their third full length bestial attack under the guide of Dunkelheit Produktionen. They've been around for a while now, since 2013 to be exact and I remember hearing their second album Veneration of Armageddon in 2016 that while good, was to an extent overlooked by a scene already swamped in savage excrementia from both pioneering and freshly cut bands.

If you're more than just familiar with the genre this kind of thing can get tiring, but for someone tip-toeing the border between extreme and commercial metal, its fair enough to understand they would be attracted regardless of how unchanging the methodology may be. The music here is as I would expect, primal drumming, great guttural vocals and riffs to fill the plate of the average black/death listener. Those are all great to have in the arsenal, but 45 minutes is much too long for something this abrasive and structurally unmodified. 30 minutes would have been ideal for Apparition of Doomsday given there's not much occurring within the department of variety. I take because it’s been 3 years since the last full-length record, Goatblood saw it necessary to take this step in their catalog, and tack on 15 more minutes of material as a bonus perhaps.

From 'Goat Order' through 'Flood of Roaches' you'll get bestial, dark and untamed recordings put together proficiently; the rage velocity is high, and the songs make compelling impact, enough to produce headbanging for quite a while. The variation here isn't much but there is by way of doom metal transitions and sudden mid-tempo blasting. The first 9 tracks are the best of the total album, but the latter songs fall a bit short in memorability, they rarely try in offering anything different as they follow the standard path of war metal basics.

However then former side of Apparition of Doomsday carried the load of the work given 'Goat Order', 'Beach of the Dead', 'Exclusion Prevails', 'Flood of Roaches' and 'Ram of Nazareth' are such killer tracks. The thing is Goatblood don't dwell too much on technical this or variety that, they could not give a fuck-less, rather they insist a continuous hostility supplementing new levels of intensity, hence I think it's here they truly make their weaponized talents known. Yes, the guitars could have been used more to encourage replayability than what is already existent, but nothing can be taken away from Goatblood as far as erecting that war metal sound we all hold dear. The samples prelude to 'Beach of the Dead', 'Flood of Roaches', 'Ram of Nazareth' and so forth add a minatory sense to the tunes, that in conjunction with the production helps the impact of the recordings on Apparitions of Doomsday.

What I perceive as excess others may take as necessity to their thirst for such material. Fair enough, but if you're serious about standing out in this already overcrowded war metal territory, you'll need to go a bit further than the archetypal approach. Nonetheless, Apparition of Doomsday is a passionate offering of foulest visions in musical form untouched and unbent by subordination.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Arek on December 21, 2021.

Scald is a Northern Irish band that I learned about thanks to my correspondence with Maciek. I will not hide that I am a longtime fan of his work from the times of Sirrah and TMT, and the work of qip resulted in a closer acquaintance. Coming back to the Regius I, which is the culprit of this review, Scald at the turn of 2020 and 2021 is the result of Maciek's ideas initiated by cooperation with Scald, but with a note of qip creativity. The album consists of 10 quite panoramic pieces leading the listener through the world created from the tightly twisted visions of the creators. I do not dare to explicitly indicate the musical genre Scald is currently in. It is definitely heavily based on metal, rock, industrial and death / doom progression.

Communing with the new face of Scald gives me great pleasure. It is like a feast with the works of Rudolf Giger, Beksiński or their film representations. However, it is extremely difficult to describe the nature of this album in words. It is very dependent on the listener's psyche and the vision it will evoke. Maciek has a great ability to create picture-making music, and his growls force rot even into the most beautifully flowering meadows. This is also the case here, when we hear seemingly gentle melodies, his voice and the dirty-dark mood of the album do not give hope for something divine. Musically, the album is firmly set south of heaven. Maybe we will not feel hell fires here, but their stench and what can crawl out of there, yes. The new face of Scald, although strongly rooted in the death / doom, so often sneaks into various other regions that putting a label on this album as well as this sub-genre would be a lie. Apart from Maciek's growls, we will hear various vocalizations of Pet. In addition to dense slow sections, we will encounter almost grind cannonades. In addition to typical metal guitars, we will hear electronic samples straight from rock and pop-electronic worlds. So, are you ready for this ambiguous musical play? For the timid or Orthodox - I do not recommend it. I recommend it to everyone else though, because this slightly stinking journey may turn out to be completely different than the one I experienced.

Looped in a multiplied adventure with over an hour's repertoire of Regius I must say that although I devote myself with great pleasure to this dark musical fairy tale, I am aware that the path taken by Scald will not bring them crowds of fans. However, looking at the whole story of this band, it was probably never their goal. I appreciate them for that. Despite the lack of mass applause, they still find the strength to resurrect and present their sick visions of this worm-infested world to their listeners. I do not want to press Regius I onto anyone like a marketing peddler, but if you want to travel through the dark corners of this sick and twisted post-apocalyptic world - I invite you. I myself will be waiting for the next installments of this trilogy.

Rating: 9.2 out of 10

Review by Felix on June 27, 2024.

Norway has lost its leading role in terms of black metal already years ago, although some bands still try to follow in the footsteps of the pioneers. The bitter truth is: usually they fail. Hjemsøkt’s debut EP explains why. “Mystikk og Mørke” is a generic yet suitable title, the artwork is quite impressive in its simplicity. But the songs lack coherence. “Steinens mørke søvn” starts relatively promising with a dense guitar wall, but it does not take long until a break leads to a comparatively expressionless mid-tempo part. The song implodes completely as an acoustic break sets in. Only the extremely raw vocals remind us of the fact that we are listening to a black metal output. Finally, the song regains the intensity of the beginning with the fiery guitars until it ends abruptly. I am sorry, but this is an opener where the sum of the single parts is disappointing, because it does not shape a convincing overall result.

The further tracks have the same problem. Some sections are okay, but just when you think things are really getting going, the band is suddenly overcome by weltschmerz again and everything fizzles out. The short, calm intermezzo “Sorgens hymne” marches to a different drummer. The lead vocalist accompanies the mild guitar work with a relatively clean voice, but the whole thing remains insignificant. Anyway, such an interlude can be ignored as long as the other songs meet the expectations. But really thrilling sections do not occur here and, aggravating the situation, the production does not make the songs better. The guitars swallow the drums almost completely. Only the voice is able to resist the dominance of the guitars whose sound is free from nuances. Everything leaves a fuzzy picture. Perhaps some guys say that this type of production fits the genre excellently, but I disagree. A more professional sound would have been a fine thing, but maybe a low budget left no other options, so I don’t want to be too harsh here.

Now that I have explained why “Mystikk og Mørke” does not make my day, an important question remains: does the band has the talent and potential to do it better? Honestly speaking, time will tell, but if they focus on a few good ideas and lines per song, it is possible that they can make some huge steps forward. And they have to make a decision. Either they want to celebrate very intense black metal, or they like to embody a lot of tragic and fatalism. Their EP has shown that they cannot connect both streams successfully, at least not until now. Despite a few still great bands, Norway has lost a lot of its glory.

Rating: 5.3 out of 10

Review by Felix on June 27, 2024.

Norway has lost its leading role in terms of black metal already years ago, although some bands still try to follow in the footsteps of the pioneers. The bitter truth is: usually they fail. Hjemsøkt’s debut EP explains why. “Mystikk og Mørke” is a generic yet suitable title, the artwork is quite impressive in its simplicity. But the songs lack coherence. “Steinens mørke søvn” starts relatively promising with a dense guitar wall, but it does not take long until a break leads to a comparatively expressionless mid-tempo part. The song implodes completely as an acoustic break sets in. Only the extremely raw vocals remind us of the fact that we are listening to a black metal output. Finally, the song regains the intensity of the beginning with the fiery guitars until it ends abruptly. I am sorry, but this is an opener where the sum of the single parts is disappointing, because it does not shape a convincing overall result.

The further tracks have the same problem. Some sections are okay, but just when you think things are really getting going, the band is suddenly overcome by weltschmerz again and everything fizzles out. The short, calm intermezzo “Sorgens hymne” marches to a different drummer. The lead vocalist accompanies the mild guitar work with a relatively clean voice, but the whole thing remains insignificant. Anyway, such an interlude can be ignored as long as the other songs meet the expectations. But really thrilling sections do not occur here and, aggravating the situation, the production does not make the songs better. The guitars swallow the drums almost completely. Only the voice is able to resist the dominance of the guitars whose sound is free from nuances. Everything leaves a fuzzy picture. Perhaps some guys say that this type of production fits the genre excellently, but I disagree. A more professional sound would have been a fine thing, but maybe a low budget left no other options, so I don’t want to be too harsh here.

Now that I have explained why “Mystikk og Mørke” does not make my day, an important question remains: does the band has the talent and potential to do it better? Honestly speaking, time will tell, but if they focus on a few good ideas and lines per song, it is possible that they can make some huge steps forward. And they have to make a decision. Either they want to celebrate very intense black metal, or they like to embody a lot of tragic and fatalism. Their EP has shown that they cannot connect both streams successfully, at least not until now. Despite a few still great bands, Norway has lost a lot of its glory.

Rating: 5.3 out of 10

Review by Felix on June 27, 2024.

Norway has lost its leading role in terms of black metal already years ago, although some bands still try to follow in the footsteps of the pioneers. The bitter truth is: usually they fail. Hjemsøkt’s debut EP explains why. “Mystikk og Mørke” is a generic yet suitable title, the artwork is quite impressive in its simplicity. But the songs lack coherence. “Steinens mørke søvn” starts relatively promising with a dense guitar wall, but it does not take long until a break leads to a comparatively expressionless mid-tempo part. The song implodes completely as an acoustic break sets in. Only the extremely raw vocals remind us of the fact that we are listening to a black metal output. Finally, the song regains the intensity of the beginning with the fiery guitars until it ends abruptly. I am sorry, but this is an opener where the sum of the single parts is disappointing, because it does not shape a convincing overall result.

The further tracks have the same problem. Some sections are okay, but just when you think things are really getting going, the band is suddenly overcome by weltschmerz again and everything fizzles out. The short, calm intermezzo “Sorgens hymne” marches to a different drummer. The lead vocalist accompanies the mild guitar work with a relatively clean voice, but the whole thing remains insignificant. Anyway, such an interlude can be ignored as long as the other songs meet the expectations. But really thrilling sections do not occur here and, aggravating the situation, the production does not make the songs better. The guitars swallow the drums almost completely. Only the voice is able to resist the dominance of the guitars whose sound is free from nuances. Everything leaves a fuzzy picture. Perhaps some guys say that this type of production fits the genre excellently, but I disagree. A more professional sound would have been a fine thing, but maybe a low budget left no other options, so I don’t want to be too harsh here.

Now that I have explained why “Mystikk og Mørke” does not make my day, an important question remains: does the band has the talent and potential to do it better? Honestly speaking, time will tell, but if they focus on a few good ideas and lines per song, it is possible that they can make some huge steps forward. And they have to make a decision. Either they want to celebrate very intense black metal, or they like to embody a lot of tragic and fatalism. Their EP has shown that they cannot connect both streams successfully, at least not until now. Despite a few still great bands, Norway has lost a lot of its glory.

Rating: 5.3 out of 10