| CD REVIEW Battle Dagorath |
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Band: Battle Dagorath The Californian formation Battle Dagorath started in 2002 and has nothing to offer that might remind you to California’s sandy beaches, blond-haired bitches, sun, and sweet cocktails with a purple or pink umbrella. On the contrary, it is all about bloody battle fields, black-hearted bitches, moon, and silver chalices of red wine. In 2008, Mercenary Musik released the band’s debut album, Eternal Throne, which now gets re-released by the fantastic label Cold Dimensions, owned by Andreas Bauer aka Whyrhd from Lunar Aurora-fame. Like the band’s moniker reveals, Battle Dagorath is strongly Tolkien-inspired, but not in the same way as, let’s say, Summoning, Valar, Equitant, Sirion, Galadriel or Rivendell, to name a few. The music Battle Dagorath bring is closely related to Cold Dimensions’ catalogue. Eternal Throne lasts for an hour and brings misanthropic, bleak and raw underground Black Metal with a winterly atmosphere and a haunting yet majestic primitive sound. After the intro, which was composed by Christoph Ziegler (Atomtrakt, Vinterriket, Nocternity, Nebelkorona, session for e.g. Goethes Erben, Cirith Gorgor and Graven), who did also take care of the final mastering, Black Sorcerer BattleAxe (g, b) (aka Sir Hindenburg from Nekroholocaust), Wulfskrieger (v) (the guy behind Warwulf) and Witch Hammer (d) create Nordic superiority in the vein of the early nineties (second ‘huge’ Black Metal wave). The production seems to be allergic to modern safety, yet in spite of the archaic approach the whole stands as a monolithic prehistoric monument. Like many projects within these obscure dimensions, so-called ambient influences are used to darken the oppressing spells even more deeply. Both tempo and melody are varying, the compositions are primordial yet brave, and the album will satisfy every dark soul’s mind with a passionate (or is it obsessive) love for cold and grim Nordic-inspired underground Black Metal. 94/100 Ivan Tibos. |