Metal Reviews

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Yeah, right.... lol

My thoughts as well...

Christian Black Metal is an oxymoron. The whole genre's roots are based in Pagan culture and the hatred of Christianity for the persecution of their Pagan beliefs in Europe during the Middle Ages. Now, not every Black Metal band feels identical, but the general idea of Christianity's corruptness or persecution of human spirituality is evident in most Black Metal. Christians have always manipulated things to serve their purpose. Sorry, but this just really irritates me. Black Metal is the opposite of Christianity. It shows respect for Pagan culture and spirituality.

I do understand that today the music style itself has been tagged as Black Metal, but to say Christian Black Metal is just ridiculous IMO. It's an insult to Black Metal for any Christian to push their beliefs through Black Metal.

That is all

I agree wholeheartedly with your post.

Who's this reviewer? Is he new?

It's less the whole "Christian Black Metal = oxymoron" thing than it being just weak generic, empty and hollow. Not a touch of what makes black metal, well, black metal to be found here.

Too many people think that because it has blastbeats (yawn) and harsh vocals, somehow it automatically qualifies as black metal.

A 93 for this?

I could stand around 15 seconds of the "killing songs" listed before I was overwhelmed with annoyance.
A cheese grater to my ball sack has more appeal than this insipidly overproduced aggro wannabe crap.

I listened to the first half of the album, and I really don't think it is that bad. Poor vocals and unimpressive song structures, sure, not really black metal, sure, but the guiltarwork would earn a 60-65 from me.

I expected posts countering the genre given to this album/band. The line "I merely am referring to black metal as an extreme style of metal and not the extreme anti-religious message that most emphasize within their music and lyrics." shows the reviewer did too. I have to agree with the posts above though. I cannot think of something like Christian Black Metal. I will give these guys a listen out of sheer curiosity.

Actually, if you read a little bit about Euronymous (pretty much the leader of the scene until his death) black metal was about Satanism, pure and simple. He believed in a literal God and Satan, and worshipped Satan as a physical force of evil. He didn't consider Pagan bands to be black metal, although he tolerated them on his label.

At least one musician expressed relief at his death, stating that the 'black metal police' are gone.

So perhaps what we have in this thread is another case of the 'black metal police'.

+1 from me...So what if they want to express their faith through black metal music, i know black metal has satanic roots but in the end it's just a genre of music, a style...nothing more. So if they like that style of music and use that as a vehicle for their message then i say good for them and God bless.

WHAT NEXT JEWISH BLACK METAL OMG

Don't think bands can own genre labels, personally. If you do/don't see them as black metal, that's up to you.

People forget about the musical side entirely when something is branded as such. Hellhammer from MAYHEM actually was the session drummer for Antestor's album The Forsaken. He knew exactly what the band stood for but in no way shape or form denied helping the band despite finding it a little humerous himself. He is a completely professional person when it comes to music and also even states in an interview that it has always just been about the music. Something people can unfortunately forget. But everyone is entitled to their own opinions of course.

I myself stated very explicitly that it has nothing to do with their ideology, rather that the music rings hollow, as if their heart isn't really in it . Quasi-black metal musically, it is missing the all-important ingredient, the one that can't be faked, and incidentally the one ingredient that just happens, existing in and of itself.

Now it may be that the fact that they are Christians is behind the lack of authenticity, their "heart not being in it" , I'm not really concerned with that. The music is mundane, generic and devoid of that certain quality that defines black metal. Without it, it's just distorted guitars and harsh vox set to blastbeats.
There are about 10, 000 other bands that do exactly this, and I don't see what makes these guys special enough to warrant the score of 93. It's the epitome of banality.

That's where my criticism springs from, I couldn't care less what their religious beliefs are.
In fact the whole "anti-religion" thing is such a cliche in metal, it's not even noteworthy.

Hellhammer was mentioned: he plays drums for a lot of bands as a session drummer, his presence behind the skins doesn't automatically mean it is black metal.

Yeah, yeah, I am fully aware that it comes across as elitist and perhaps even arrogant, but there it is.

Listening to some now. Interesting that if you'd have stuck a 'progressive' in there instead of 'Christian', there wouldn't be half as much fuss... It's not bad, but not sure I'd have given it anything near a score in the 90s.

Its a simple difference of opinion. I really liked the album, some others didn't. It's that simple people. Am I going to change my opinion on this record because of everyone else? Absolutely not. Now obviously I am going to like them more than others because I've been listening to Antestor much longer than probably anyone which will show bias. I did a little looking around and didn't find one negative review anywhere else. All seemed to score around the same or show a positive correlation. People seem to like it while others obviously from the comments are either despising it or having neutral feelings. We can't all sing the same tune everyone. Is it me or is everyone just completely jaded with just about everything in entertainment lately?

I liked the guitarwork and the drum sound (far more varied than just blasting, actually) but I'm not a fan of the song structures/vocals.

As Zad said, just add the progressive/post-black/extreme whatever moniker and everyone finds it inoffensive and some people would like it.

Got to agree with you there. Thought about referring to it as Unblack Metal to an extent. Or more humorous as my friend suggested....white metal.

That's actually a good idea. You know, have a genre called Unblack or White metal where it is Black Metal music with Christian lyrics .