Underworld Regime [Import]

this album is a really solid album. i am a HUGE black metal fan, so when i heard that god seed fell through i was kinda upset! i love gaahls vocals and kings writing so i was looking forward to that album. this is the god seed album minus gaah. instead we have a vocalist who more then fills shoes ov the mighty gaahl!! shagraths and abbath as well as another vocalist who is not so well known as the previous mentioned nagash ( troll, covenant) have the most errie reptilian vocal sound ever. his performance on this album is worth the price alone!! he does an amazing job and its nice to see him do vox for a band other then dimmu ( chrome division was a joke). highlights on this album include devils harlot, perpetual night, and invoker ( awesome solo at the end!!) if your a fan ov black metal buy this, its a solid album and def worth your hard earned cash.

I'm a big fan of all the "ingredients" in this dish. I'm not a big fan of this finished dish; it lacks, for me, seasoning/spice. IF you are a fan of Gorgoroth's albums "Twilight of the Idols" and "the all-Latin title prior to the latest all-Latin title"...in other words, the ones featuring mostly Gaahl/King ov Hell compositions, you will probably be keen on this album. But that may be the only type of Black MeTal fan that will REALLY like this. It isn't a "bad" album, per se, just doesn't have a lot to sink your teeth into. Shagrath's vocals are great, and it is slightly interesting to hear him perform in a non-Dimmu or Chrome Division style(unless you are such a "troo" BM kvltist that you scoff at Shagrath for being such a "sell-out"; but then you probably wouldn't be buying anything that sells more than 13 copies); Frost's drumming is, of course, phenomenal, and the other fellows do excellent jobs as well. Again, a lot of excellent ingredients that culminate in a bland final product (for me). It sounds great, without being too "slick", but there is no gritty, dark feel to it, either. There were no excellent riffs on here that hooked me; nothing remained memorable even a few minutes after listening to it. So if you did like the King/Gaahl era Gorgoroth releases, you will most probably like this quite a bit, as one can easily hear that it was meant to be the next Gorgoroth album after those (in this instance)buffoons decided to oust the one remaining founding member and take over the name...which leads me to an amusing point: King and Gaahl and Infernus are all such self-proclaimed devout Satanists (which I can attest to as I was lucky enough to be able to speak to each of them regarding this and other less esoteric subjects)...why were they all fighting so bitterly over a made-up name from a fantasy series that has nothing whatsoever to do with Satanism? $$$, perhaps? (well, I can see Infernus' wanting to keep the name of a band he was a founding member of, and for once a "justice system" arrived at the proper decision). An "OK" release, I just prefer something a bit more savage and/or memorable.

Ov Hell, the best Black Metal super group that i can think of, has given us an album that sounds like Dimmu Borgir without the keyboards, opera vocals & only 75% of the production value. if you like anyone of these songs, you'll like all of them. just your standard, predictable Black Metal release. worth a listen to fans of Dimmu or Gorgoroth.