Review by Luka on March 17, 2002.

Deicide-the world's infamous Satanic death metallers here offer us a good hour of hard-hitting, complex, generic extreme metal. Sure, every song sounds the same, the singing is absolutely horrible, the song titles funny and unoriginal, but this is some fun shit to crank up, get drunk, and 'bang to!

To a Deicide fan (or an intoxicated metalhead) this would surely have been one kick-ass live show, but putting it down on a recording greatly decimates the energy and excitement that surely emanated from the stage that night. The playing is top-notch, very tight and barely any mistakes. The guitars are generally monotone but the lead has a great sound that adds kind of a dark atmosphere as well as something to keep the interest of those with short attention spans. The drum beat on 'Oblivous to Evil' and 'Believe the Lie' as well as the guitar shredding are very catchy and get your head bobbing, though the others are greatly burdened with pointless blast-beats and uneven time signatures that get very annoying, very fast.

This is not an album that keeps you interested. For a live show, I found it quite irritating at the lack of stage excitement and interaction, the singer barely says two words in the whole hour and it gives me the impression of the band doing chores instead of playing songs they enjoy. Each muddy track sound the same as the one before it, and not being a fan of Deicide, I don't know if this is also the case with their studio albums. For a mix of songs spanning their entire career, there is very little sound progression and improvement apparent, in fact, the song announced as "from our first album" sounded much better to my ears than most others.

A point up for the lead-guitar work of Eric and Brian Hoffman, and point down for the vocals of Benton, the rest is mediocre, unoriginal death metal.

Bottom Line: Just one of the many bad and generic death metal albums out there, helping to give the genre a bad name that it is already struggling with. Aside from hardcore Deicide fans, I can't imagine who would ever buy this.

Originality: 4
Musicianship: 7
Atmosphere: 5
Production: 7
Overall: 5

Rating: 5.6 out of 10

Review by Luka on March 17, 2002.

Deicide-the world's infamous Satanic death metallers here offer us a good hour of hard-hitting, complex, generic extreme metal. Sure, every song sounds the same, the singing is absolutely horrible, the song titles funny and unoriginal, but this is some fun shit to crank up, get drunk, and 'bang to!

To a Deicide fan (or an intoxicated metalhead) this would surely have been one kick-ass live show, but putting it down on a recording greatly decimates the energy and excitement that surely emanated from the stage that night. The playing is top-notch, very tight and barely any mistakes. The guitars are generally monotone but the lead has a great sound that adds kind of a dark atmosphere as well as something to keep the interest of those with short attention spans. The drum beat on 'Oblivous to Evil' and 'Believe the Lie' as well as the guitar shredding are very catchy and get your head bobbing, though the others are greatly burdened with pointless blast-beats and uneven time signatures that get very annoying, very fast.

This is not an album that keeps you interested. For a live show, I found it quite irritating at the lack of stage excitement and interaction, the singer barely says two words in the whole hour and it gives me the impression of the band doing chores instead of playing songs they enjoy. Each muddy track sound the same as the one before it, and not being a fan of Deicide, I don't know if this is also the case with their studio albums. For a mix of songs spanning their entire career, there is very little sound progression and improvement apparent, in fact, the song announced as "from our first album" sounded much better to my ears than most others.

A point up for the lead-guitar work of Eric and Brian Hoffman, and point down for the vocals of Benton, the rest is mediocre, unoriginal death metal.

Bottom Line: Just one of the many bad and generic death metal albums out there, helping to give the genre a bad name that it is already struggling with. Aside from hardcore Deicide fans, I can't imagine who would ever buy this.

Originality: 4
Musicianship: 7
Atmosphere: 5
Production: 7
Overall: 5

Rating: 5.6 out of 10

Review by Felix on June 13, 2019.

A split album is always a nice thing, but don't ask me why I bought this one. I had never heard a single note of both bands before and I had never read any interviews with them or anything else. I guess their Norwegian origin was reason enough for me to become active. Forgive me for being so superficial. 

Due to the fact that the band from Stavanger never released any other work, Galdreroffer their entire repertoire here. Don't be fooled by five titles, because they include an intro and an outro. Both are, to express it politely, not among the most necessary tracks in the history of rock music. This applies as well to the regular songs of the formation, because thrilling moments are missing. I wish the somewhat sleepy dudes would put the pedal to the metal from time to time. Especially the dreary "Ferdatokt" does not convince due its powerless appearance. The guitar work of the following tracks conveys a meaner feeling, but I wish I could kick the musicians in the ass in order to vitalize them. Apart from this deviancy, Galdrer play their part in a proper way. The songs have an authentic touch and sound neither primitive nor over-complex. Finally, the audio quality has nothing in common with questionable doctrines of the underground. All in all, Galdrer are somewhere between disappointing and developable - 60%.

Hailing from a 5.000-inhabitants-village, Ulvhedner have been more productive than their split partner. They open Ferdasyn / Trolldomsanger with a handful of mid-harsh, sometimes almost folkloric songs. Their most outstanding feature are the fine melodies. They avoid any form of schmaltz, but they give the tracks a pretty harmonic touch. "Sanitorium" must be mentioned in this context in view of its excellent, airy melody line. Even the opener, which has some fast, straight and vehement parts, does not neglect the melodic side of the formation. Maybe bands like Svartahrid or very early Gehenna have been an influence for the mid-paced compositions of Ulvhedner. Be that as it may, the level of harshness is comparable. The scratchy vocals constitute an important factor for the Scandinavian horde to show its harsher facet, although every now and then heroic vocals show up. Everything is put into the right light by a solid production that gives the tracks a stable outfit. Okay, the fourth track is slightly weaker than the first trio and the ambient closer of Ulvhedner's contribution is acceptable at best, but from my point of view, 72% is the appropriate rating.

In a nutshell, if you have an affinity for unknown combos, pretty crude split albums and Nordic sounds, this one is for you. Both formations don't lack integrity and therefore you don't make a mistake when buying this output. Nevertheless, let me be honest enough to say that it is anything but a must-have-album.

Rating: 6.6 out of 10