In Defiance Of Existance

2003 is going to be a hell of a great year. The year starts off with Old Man’s Child new release In Defiance Of Existence. Then we will have Cradle Of Filth's new album Damnation And A Day, The Kovenant with S.E.T.I. (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence), and finally later in the year the new Dimmu Borgir which they have not started recording yet. Since Emperor has laid down their weapons (I would not be surprised if they reunite someday), might we call the remaining aforementioned bands the big four of black metal ?

Old Man’s Child mainman Galder is one strange guy. On Old Man’s Child earlier recordings, he used to call himself Grusom (his real name is Thomas Rune Andersen). I just want to point out that he never recorded twice at the same location. This new album has been recorded at Studio Fredman with producer Fredrik Nordström while Revelations 666 – The Curse Of Damnation was recorded at Abyss Studio with superstar producer Peter Tägtgren. Legendary Tomas Skogsberg at famous Sunlight studios recorded and produced Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion. Galder helped producing The Pagan Prosperity at Studiomega with J. Lohngrin Cremonese and Christian Silver. Finally, their first album Born Of The Flickering was recorded at Studio 3 in Norway with producer Tom Sennerud.

On his side are the long time follower and founding member Jardar (not JarJar) on lead guitar (his real name is Jon Øyvind Andersen). The guys teamed up on all Old Man’s Child recordings except for Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion. Galder probably noticed that working with his longtime friends had always created the best and darkest unholy visions so Jardar returned for Revelations 666 – The Curse Of Damnation which I consider their best output so far. For the first time ever comes drummer Nicholas Barker who is also Galder's bandmate in Dimmu Borgir. Making a guest appearance on several tracks is Gus G. from Dream Evil who contributed some guitar leads.

Despite what many people say and I know some of you are going to kill me on that one, I find a lot of similarities between Old Man’s Child and Dimmu Borgir musically speaking. Now that Galder has teamed up with his bandmate Nicholas Barker the differences are even less. I found Old Man’s Child a bit more chaotic than Dimmu Borgir, although their finest symphonic black metal is as good as their fellow compatriots. Even if it seemed nearly impossible, Galder and Jardar have improved the band’s unique style of sharp thrash metal riffs and majestic black metal melodies, although I find their previous album Revelations 666 – The Curse Of Damnation thicker probably because I have been listening to it for the last three years. Differences between the two bands are that Old Man's Child do not use any clean vocals, nor do they use a real philarmonic orchestra for the Ochestral parts.

This album is growing on me everytime I listen to it and with no doubt it will be one of this year's finest symphonic black metal opus'. Newcomer Shannon Hourigan created the amazing cover artwork, maintaining the high standards of the band’s visual expression.