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