This record has two of the most important black metal bands from the US on its two sides. No other black metal bands sound like these two bands, and it speaks to their originality and songcraft that this is so. Hopefully this will be repressed, as I am sure availability is low. You can always get this digitally if you have to, I recommend getting it however you can. Side A contains Lord Humongous' offerings, and we get three originals and a cover of Exodus' "And Then There Were None" for good measure (which Mordant Rhed helps out on). Their thrash-based black metal assault is as it ever was - intense, evil, and nuclear-obsessed, with the usual bit of influence from war metal in their sound. They're deceptively skilled musicians, delivering some wild time shifts and changes in what at first seem to be simpler songs. Side B has the sick dreamings of Mordant Rhed, one of my personal favorites. They start strong, blasting like Blasphemy, but tempered by their hardcore punk influences into something more. Their songs are short, sharp, black metal shocks, the way it ought to be. They're barbaric, by far the more uncontrolled of the two bands, and they just sound dangerous. The material here is their best yet, and catchiest by far. Depending on if your tastes are like mine, they're the best band on the split. Mark my words - these two bands will be legends in the US underground, and they're well on their way to notoriety.
