Rise of the Imperial Hordes

Well this was Krieg's debut from '98, and about a third of the way through, I thought this was going to be a classic. It isn't, but it does have some damned cool shit on it. It states in the liner notes that "Personally I hate this recording and I hope you do too." Well that's kvlt isn't it?

The first few songs on here indicate some serious BM genius at work, as "Alarum", "The Great Black Death" and "As Humanity Fades" are just awesome raw Black Metal with painful howling vocals that recalls the old days of Mayhem. In fact the whole first part of this CD reminds me a lot of "Der Mysteriis Dom Sathanas", which is hella cool if you ask me. But the then the bullshit starts, with crap like "My Weeping Soul" which is just an extended movie soundclip, and the awful screeching jangle of "Coronation". You do get some good stuff after this point, but it's in fits and starts only – nothing like the sustained fury of the first few songs. You get a lot of filler instrumental garbage and some more lame soundclips, and not enough metal.

I'm going to have to get some of this band's later stuff, as there is some great potential here, but with a 30-odd minute album that is half filler, I can't say this is a great album. Kvlt as all fuck, yes, but not great for all that.