Band: Black Anvil
Title: Time Insults The Mind
Label: Monumentum Records
Distribution: Bertus
Release date: September 2008
Review: CD

The history of this NYC-band starts within the NYHC (New York Hardcore) scene. The members having played in bands as Kill Your Idols, Madball, None More Black, H20 or Deathcycle, yet this collaboration has nothing to do with those bands at all. What Black Anvil bring is an old school oriented form of Black Metal, with elements from Doom, Thrash and Death Metal. As from the opening riff of Margin For Terror, you’ll hear a sound that is rough and unpolished, and this is a perfect cover of the grim and pure ‘early years’-Metal songs. The overall tempo varies from slow to mid-tempo, yet a few parts are faster, sometimes even speeding up-tempo. The songs do not vary that much in fact, and also originality isn’t the case for Black Anvil. However, this project does not need to be the most original one, because they compensate this lack of renewing by a superb performance at one hand, and superior compositions on the other. I think it’s very touching, because the dark music is of a high quality and, what’s more, I couldn’t really expect that a few Hardcore-musicians were able to create such a nice album. Really impressing! Anyway, those firm, powerful and oppressing hymns sound timeless, yet much updated at the same time. Every monumental, gargantuan and massive track does caress my mind - it does certainly NOT insult (because of its timeless character???). The tracks, by the way, do not shine with progressive or ultra-technical riffs or rhythms, yet the sometimes grooving hymns exhale the average would-be masses, that’s for sure. Anyway, this monumentum is highly recommended to fans of, let’s say, everything between Celtic Frost (and Hellhammer) (listen for example to the hidden bonus track, the cover of Dethroned Emperor), Possessed, Usurper, Satyricon, Autopsy, Old, Venom, Watain, Messiah, Vreid and Tyrant. I need to add that the whole isn’t as perfect as I am (all right, which is almost impossible!), but for a first album, and with the knowledge that the members come from a completely different scene, Time Insults The Mind is a top-debut! I do look forward to the next effort!

90/100

Ivan Tibos.