At long last, the debut full-length album from Evil Incarnate! (Their first CD, Blood of the Saints, being a re-release of their Evil Incarnate and Christ Destroyed demos.) As I knew it would be, this evil Death Metal is better than ever. The sick bastards in Evil I have always known how to write heavy, memorable songs, and this album is a real showcase for their diabolical talents.

With an album title longer than some of my reviews, Ereshkigal starts things out slowly with the apparently mandatory Black Metal intro before proceeding into their mid-paced riff attack. I think that it’s great to hear Black Metal of other tempos than “light speed,” so this often more melancholy take on things is good news in my opinion. This is my first time hearing this band, but hopefully not the last.

I am a huge fan of this band’s first two albums, Left Hand Path and Clandestine, but I’d felt that they started to go downhill afterward, with Wolverine Blues and much more so with the White Zombie-ish To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth. So disappointed was I, that I didn’t even pick up their next album, Same Difference. I’d pretty much given up on them. And then at this last Milwaukee Metalfest (2000), I found myself staying at the same hotel as Entombed. I’ve interviewed the band in the past, but the lineup is almost entirely different now, so I hadn’t spoken to any of them before, and when we (I was with the bad motherfucker, Jack Botos) saw them in the lobby, I was a little apprehensive about running up to say hi. I really shouldn’t have been, since they came right over and started passing introductions around. Turns out that Entombed (and their road crew) are probably the coolest guys on the planet. The next day at the ‘fest, they even dedicated a song (“Evilyn”) to us. At that time, this new album, Uprising, had not yet been released in the USA, but I’d heard that it was a sort of return to form. I didn’t exactly get that impression from the new songs live, but I also couldn’t be sure exactly which ones were from this album, and what might have been from the (still) unheard Same Difference. But they did play a couple I’d never heard before that I liked, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found this in my PO box these months later. While in no way a return to the Death Metal perfection of their first two albums, Uprising is pretty cool in it’s own way. And the US version has three bonus tracks, available nowhere else. Take that Europe and Japan! Now you know what it’s like. Anyway, there are some nods to the past here, such as what was the final track (before the bonus cuts were added), “In the Flesh,” which is almost like “Left Hand Path” part 2. But mostly, this seems to be based more around a Crust model, than a Metal one, which is cool, and brings back a lot more intensity than I remember Entombed having in the last several years. It also allows L.G. to scream in a different, non-Death Metal way that really suits his voice much better currently. Okay, this isn’t exactly flawless, and the bonus tracks sound kind of thrown-together, but there are moments of greatness here, and like I said, these guys are the coolest, so I’d have to recommend that old fans who may have given up on Entombed check this out. And I’m going to track down a copy of Same Difference just to hear what I’ve missed.

Tennessee-based Enter Self play groove-oriented Death Metal. Not much blasting here as the songs hover in the mid-pace range. Some of the time-changes are a little weird, and this sometimes makes it difficult to follow the songs. The vocals are the typical Death Metal growl which honestly makes them boring at times. Some impressive and technical guitar-work pops up in a few places. I’ve given this several spins, and nothing really reaches out and grabs me. Awaken in Agony isn’t bad, it’s just kind of average.

It’s been a long time since I heard this band’s debut, Nacthgedanken, but I remember really hating it. It seems to me as if it were all Folk and no Metal, but this new album certainly has no lack of Black Metal fury. Nor any lack of keyboards, which is okay. But sometimes things still get a little too goofy and “happy” for me. Still, this is, I’d say, a vast improvement over the debut. Enid does still have some work to do, however.

I’m sure this is supposed to be avant-garde and really neato, but some guy half singing, half droning over what might be a “dark” Ambient background just isn’t interesting to me at all. At least not when the vocals are so goofy, and the sparse music is so boring.

Not much to report here except that no Emperor fan should be without this DVD. Great sound, great production, and a decent directing job. Recorded at a gig in London, there is nothing too visually stunning other than five guys with a good stage presence playing their hearts out. There are nine songs spanning all their albums, and a healthy portion of the classics are here. It puzzles me how Ihsahn can master singing and playing guitar (even soloing) at the same time so effectively, or how effortlessly the drummer seems to blast away. These guys are definitely pros, as this video showcases their immaculate playing ability. The coolest thing about this: I learned the slow part in “I Am the Black Wizards” by watching Ihsahn. This also includes the cult video for “The Loss and Curse of Reverence.”

Live albums can be hard to review. I mean, what else can you ever really say, other than “if you like this band, you’ll want to check out this live album”? Maybe if it’s really awesome, you might add, “even non-fans would have to be impressed with this performance.” In this case, you get the added bonus (provided you have a computer that can decipher it) of a CD-ROM video track for “I Am the Black Wizards,” which is neat, but really just a standard live performance clip. For me, at least, it’s difficult to beat Emperor live.

To say that the genre of Black Metal has been stagnant of late would be a gross understatement. The last BM album to really floor me was Darkthrone’s Ravishing Grimness, if that gives you an idea. Well, this band here has something special. Eminenz has the ability to sound evil, brutal, epic, depressing, and majestic all in one song. They do the symphonic thing to utter perfection, to add another dimension to their breathtaking doomy passages. These guys borrow heavily from the dynamics and precision of Death and Thrash Metal that serves to compliment their blasting Black Metal fury and the aforementioned morose qualities. The vocals are fucking sick. Imagine Jeff Walker, Tomas Lindberg, and Nocturno Culto all rolled up in one diabolical snarl. And the productions is slick, not frail. This is a powerful album that will summon all of your darkest emotions, and one of the finest efforts I have witnessed from a modern Black Metal act in a long long looooooong time. Obtain this gem at all costs.