black metal
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Belgium's dirtiest are back after their 2012 album 'Morinde'! A lot can change in 4 years and to be honest I feared that the sludge influences in their dirty, disgusting raw black metal would take the upper hand but I can -luckily- say that is not the case. I mean, there's nothing wrong with a bit of sludge every now and then but where Alkerdeel really exceeds others is to make black metal sound really ugly and nasty and dirty without resorting to sludge, or perhaps hardcore influences. Because let's face it, I love black metal as much as anyone, but 'dirty', 'disgusting', 'filthy' are not attributive adjectives commonly associated with black metal. But they are for Alkerdeel and that's why I'm glad that the guys from Oost-Vlaanderen haven't compromised one tiny bit.
It's still a glorious mixture of truly old school black metal like Von, Ildjarn, Darkthrone, Blasphemy and sure, there might be a bit of Grief thrown in there as well.. And some psychedelica.. And some krautrock.. And more importantly, Alkerdeel has kept true to their motto of 'only live is real' and 'Lede' is once again a completely live recording. Probably with some better gear than in their early days but the whole 'what you hear on the records is what you get live' is something that Alkerdeel has refused to compromise in and I give kvlt nekro hailz to them for that.
Everything that you have come to expect from Alkerdeel is there: Pui's buzzing, hypnotic riffs, Nieke's frantic drums, QW's very prominent, pulsing basslines and Pede's insane (and I mean INSANE) vocals.. It's all a bit more streamlined, a bit more refined (if such a word can ever be ascribed to Alkerdeel) and I think a lot of it has to with Tom Kvålsvoll's brilliant mastering. Alkerdeel has never sounded more powerful. On top of that Mories from Gnaw Their Tongues provides some appropriate noise fx that do a lot for the overall atmosphere of the album.
All in all it was well worth the 4 year wait, even though the guys haven't exactly sat still for that time. It's great to see a band refusing to compromise; they do whatever they feel like, regardless of trends. If there was ever such a thing as True Kvlt Belgian Black Metal, Alkerdeel would take the throne for sure. Essential.
Bjorn
It's still a glorious mixture of truly old school black metal like Von, Ildjarn, Darkthrone, Blasphemy and sure, there might be a bit of Grief thrown in there as well.. And some psychedelica.. And some krautrock.. And more importantly, Alkerdeel has kept true to their motto of 'only live is real' and 'Lede' is once again a completely live recording. Probably with some better gear than in their early days but the whole 'what you hear on the records is what you get live' is something that Alkerdeel has refused to compromise in and I give kvlt nekro hailz to them for that.
Everything that you have come to expect from Alkerdeel is there: Pui's buzzing, hypnotic riffs, Nieke's frantic drums, QW's very prominent, pulsing basslines and Pede's insane (and I mean INSANE) vocals.. It's all a bit more streamlined, a bit more refined (if such a word can ever be ascribed to Alkerdeel) and I think a lot of it has to with Tom Kvålsvoll's brilliant mastering. Alkerdeel has never sounded more powerful. On top of that Mories from Gnaw Their Tongues provides some appropriate noise fx that do a lot for the overall atmosphere of the album.
All in all it was well worth the 4 year wait, even though the guys haven't exactly sat still for that time. It's great to see a band refusing to compromise; they do whatever they feel like, regardless of trends. If there was ever such a thing as True Kvlt Belgian Black Metal, Alkerdeel would take the throne for sure. Essential.
Bjorn
