In our ongoing investigation of deceptive and outright fraudulent extreme metal acts, we pull the rug under a handful of established outfits that don’t even seem to bother hiding that they are after your money first, artistic integrity a distant second - an audience satisfaction not even registering. The more we pull away the blinds the more obvious these practices become. Maybe your favorite band is in here, maybe your life-long inspiration only cares about the dollars/euros you’re giving him/her? Don’t be fooled, there are plenty of honest, hard-working metal bands everywhere in the scene. It’s just that these money-hungry, artistically vacuum units make it difficult for everybody involved. These bands stopped caring, they lost the passion and fire. In short: they Sold Their Souls...
I had some material done already before the demise of Lord Belial. Some of the material was actually intended for the next Lord Belial album, but since we disbanded I changed around all of the ideas into new songs.
I don’t really consider it that much superior. But we KEPT the quality from 1st to 4th album, and that is something that is not easy to do! And I think there will come a 5th album that will kick just as much ass.
The second of two re-issued discs by Australian one-man black metal project Striborg with upgraded artwork and packaging. Originally released in 2004 on the band's own Finsternis Productions and limited to 500 hand-numbered copies. Like on the previous re-issue of this band, the production is far from stellar and actually quite nonexistent with guitars that are barely audible. The drums and bass guitar lie quite prominent in the mix. Keyboards and additional instrumentation also feature quite prominently and often push the guitars too much to the background, if they are heard to begin with. Sin-Nanna's vocals are the typical genre fare, demonic strangled rasps to raise one's hairs. "Spiritual Catharsis" once again leans towards the bleak and doom laden side of the traditional black metal genre. I wouldn't be surprised if Sin-Nanna would end up starting either a darkwave - or full-on doom metal project sometime in the future. The non-existent production adds to the overall underground feel of this product. While it doesn't do anything for me personally, I reckon that genre fans won't find this much of a hinderance to this otherwise respectable offering. Striborg would benefit from streamlining their ideas in a more coherent whole, while "Spiritual Catharsis" succeeds in breathing an atmosphere of bleakness and despair; the album misses a signature track to really stand out amongst the crowd. The lay-out and packaging are fittingly desolate for a record of this kind. Displeased Records has once again done an admirable job unearthing these hard-to-find recordings. Fans of Xasthur, Mütiilation and Ildjarn will find much to like here.http://www.displeasedrecords.comcomment itWouter 7
