We're told that the murderer always returns to the scene of the
crime, thinking of his despicable act. However, the crime is only
committed once and even though ANCIENT keep returning close to
“The Cainian Chronicle”, they are trying in vain to create
similar feelings. Not even the similar production, nor Lord
Kaiaphas help (he was spectacular in “The Cainian Chronicle”) in
one of the tracks (“Rape the children of Abel”) are enough to
repeat history. When ANCIENT themselves set the stakes oh so
high, it is inevitable that every new album they produce will
have to stand next to these gems of the past and will have to be
judged not only for its own merits but also in comparison with
the past. The quartet composed by Aphazel, Grom, Dhilorz & Jesus
Christ can at least boast “Night Visit”'s black metal-ness,
which, out of all the Norwegian black metallic monsters of old,
rises up in 2004 and holds true to the rules and norm of black
metal behaviour. Anarchic sharp riffs, accompanied by a nocturnal
atmosphere and vocals that remind us of what used to happen
musically in Norway a decade ago, will certainly enthrall
ANCIENT's fans, which have been relentlessly asking for atonement
after the rather uninteresting “Proxima Centauri”. Even though
they moved their home quite a few times (Aphazel started by
moving to the USA and then to Italy – following his heart), even
though their line-up constantly changed (the latest loss was
Deadly Kristin) and despite the extended period where they
couldn't seem to compose a descent album, it seems that ANCIENT
managed to come back, even though “Night Visit” looks jealously
to “The Cainian Chronicle”, when Lord Kaiaphas was spitting evil
curses to the creator and Aphazel was harvesting bodies with his
six-string instrument. In this not so good period for black metal
that we're going through, “Night Vision” makes us hope that the
old ones will awake. Which is good, since the various atmospheric
and “progressive” black metal acts seem to lack any evilness.
Beautified black metal is a paradox though – ANCIENT seem to
understand this well, as they stopped experimentation, returning
to their well known sound that they started with “Svartalheim”
and continued through various releases. Listening to this album
over and over again, I feel as if I'm doing them an injustice
with the final mark, but they allowed me to... |
