Review by Carl on July 19, 2021.

I found this little ditty in a secondhand vinyl shop somewhere in the late 90's. I had never heard of this lot, but the symbol for radioactivity and crappy drawn skull on the cover tickled my curiosity just right. The pictures on the sleeve had a bunch of scruffy looking dudes with Cro-Mags, The Exploited and Holy Moses shirts, and that sealed the deal for me. Hell, their vocalist is a mohawk wielding punk, so I was pretty sure this wasn't going to sound like Foreigner.

And boy, it did not disappoint. Even more: this is one of my favorite thrash LP's coming from the UK. Ardkore come out swinging with the album opener 'Half Life', a raging offering of manic hardcore thrash, that immediately sets the mood for what's to come. The music is kept up-tempo for the bulk of the album, with a pounding percussive assault laying the perfect foundation for the raging wall of noise the guitarists pull up. In style they remind me of later aggressive thrash bands like Messiah, Slaughter, Protector and even some Destuction, but with a copious amount of hardcore punk injected. Next to the scathing thrash metal Ardkore have on offer, I definitely hear the influence of 80's acts like Final Conflict, Ripcord, Siege or Cryptic Slaughter. Vocalist Scott Pope, the mohawk dude, comes from the punk school of vocalists (much to nobody's surprise, probably), employing a gruff delivery in line with the vocalists of The Exploited, Extreme Noise Terror and Concrete Sox, which complements the manic sonic assault exquisitely, but at the same time I can imagine more picky ears perhaps might have some difficulties with his style. It is your typical punk/thrash bark that leaves no room for vocal acrobatics, but for me it works really well within the frame of the music. As mentioned before, the band speed through their songs, making the 16 tracks just fly by. Just like a good hardcore thrash album should. This stuff gets my blood pumping, alright!

The production fits the violent music well, even if the balance between the instruments is somewhat off. It seems like within the music there is a constant struggle between the guitars and the percussion, with the snare pushing the guitars in the background a bit, while the guitar leads overpower the drums at times. It has to be said though, that the production fits the music excellently. The fast-paced intensity of the music is certainly not lost here, despite the production having some minor flaws.

Napalm Stix To Kidz!! is an album that may be a tad too gruff and unpolished for those into the more Bay Area style of thrash, but it comes highly recommended to those into stuff like Wehrmacht, Righteous Pigs, Inhuman Conditions, and the bands mentioned above (except Foreigner, of course). Those into the rougher German thrashers could find something of worth here as well, I'm sure, and I'd even recommend it to those into crust like Doom, Anti-Cimex and Genocide SS.

How's that for crossover appeal, eh?

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Felix on April 28, 2019.

Lord Belial are still active? Well, is this really necessary? Don't get me wrong, they never became disloyal to the spirit of more or less extreme metal, but they also mostly failed in order to produce an outstanding work. Seen from this perspective, The Black Curse marks a pretty typical work of the Swedes. The vast majority of the songs passes by without leaving a lasting impression. Yet there is at least one exception.

"Ascension of Lilith" combines all the trademarks Lord Belial want to stand for. Memorable guitar lines, powerful drumming, expressive vocal lines, demonic background vocals and an intense overall picture. Although the track crosses the seven-minutes-mark and does not lack different layers or tempos, it keeps its traceability from the beginning to the end without being boring in any way. Thus, the band delivers a little gem of melodic yet punchy black metal. Too bad that this remains an isolated case. Lord Belial seem to suffer from compositional deficiencies, because so many parts of the other songs remain relatively faceless. The good, transparent and vigorous production - including a powerful bass guitar - tries to showcase the greatness of the material, but you cannot make a racehorse out of a hamster. Okay, this comparison might be slightly unfair. Yet it is true (in my humble opinion): Lord Belial regularly fail to transform their talent into great songs and thus one listens to an ambitious album of habitual underperformers. Indeed, sometimes it seems as if the band wants simply too much. "Unorthodox Catharsis", to give but one example, starts promisingly with respect to its hammering beginning. A nasty and ominous intermezzo convinces as well, but a few pretty mild sections cause a loss of strength. At the end of the day, the song sounds pretty okay, but that's not enough in order to withstand the competition.

With the mix of a black metal frame and some tradition-conscious heavy metal sections, the band is caught between two stools. I don't want to say that the album suffers from a lack of coherence, but I know definitely more homogeneous outputs. And there is another thing that annoys me. The drumming sounds pretty sterile, especially during the fast parts. Each and every rapid sequence seems to be offered in the identical velocity. Flops like "Inexorable Retribution" make the picture complete. The band needs an expert that connects the different parts of their songs skillfully, because this is exactly where the only songwriter Thomas Backelin shows significant weaknesses. Not to mention a few really lame sections every now and then.

However, perhaps there is a hungry target group that appreciates precisely the mix of narrative sections, mild melodies, double bass carpets, a couple of robust riffs that are accompanied by a pumping bass ("Devilish Enlightenment") and robotic snare hammering. I have heard that there even exist some dudes who like Manowar, but I am sure that's a vicious lie. Either way, my advice for Lord Belial is to focus on more logical, but not predictable song patterns or to call it a day.

Rating: 5.6 out of 10