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Watain - Lawless Darkness

Published June 14 2010


*
=Staff's pick

Death's Cold Dark*
Malfeitor
Reaping Death*
Four Thrones
Wolves Curse*
Lawless Darkness
Total Funeral
Hymn To Qayin
Kiss Of Death
Waters Of Ain*


Genre Black Metal
Erik Danielsson
Vocals
Tracks 10
Pelle Forsberg
Guitar
Runningtime 73 Min.
-
Guitar
Label Season Of Mist
Erik Danielsson
Bass
Release 07 June 2010
Håkan Jonsson
Drums
Country Sweden
-
Keyboard
Producer Tore Stjerna    
Similar artists ---

"Lawless Darkness" is the mighty follow-up record to 2007 masterpiece "Sworn To The Dark". This, dear readers, is the black metal album of the year.

Watain isn't a band that is humble. "On June 7th 2010 Black Metal shall be reborn" was the catchphrase for "Lawless Darkness". Believe you me - when the band delivers music of such quality they can say whatever they want. And speaking of band, Watain is more of a force than a band in the original sense of the word. Everything about this group of people just screams metal, darkness, insanity and a true will to channeling evil things through music. This isn't to say that Watain's music is hard to listen to - the production on "Lawless Darkness" is rich, dark and perfectly suited to the band's songs - and very pleasing to the ears, if not to the mind.

The actual title of the record says a lot about the music we're dealing with here - and at times it's very emotionally exhausting to ingest the level of darkness put on display here. After nine songs I have succumbed to mental fatigue - it's at this point that Watain unleashes Waters Of Ain, a 14 minutes long odyssey of epic proportions. Long songs aren't a problem for me if they sound like this song - every note is justified and this track alone justifies buying the record. No, I'm not joking.

Of course there are quite a few songs that are very good on the album - Wolves Curse with its haunting guitar work, the single Reaping Death with its blastbeatstornado and quite groovy middle part and the opening track Death's Cold Dark are my picks from the album - but let me say that there simply aren't any weak tracks on "Lawless Darkness". As a whole this record proves that Watain are at the top of their game putting to shame so many of the bands active in the black metal scene by the sheer force of their music.

If you have any interest at all in the black metal scene, you have already bought this record. For the rest of you, well, just let me say that you will be denying yourselves quite the feast if you don't get "Lawless Darkness".

See also review of: The Wild Hunt

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

9

7

9

9

9

 
Summary



9 chalices of 10 - Martin


Related links:

www.templeofwatain.com
www.myspace.com/watainofficial