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The Cold Earth Slept Below... (1996)
Released in 1996, The Cold Earth Slept Below... is the first album from Judas Iscariot, a terrible one-man black metal project. This is a good representation of everything that went wrong with much of the American underground during the '90s. Musically, this is a terrible attempt to imitate early Darkthrone and Burzum. Though to use the word "imitate" is to be generous; he outright steals from Transilvanian Hunger, at times.
The musicianship is horrible, even by raw black metal standards. The guitars are played competently enough, but the drumming is utterly hopeless. At many points, it is clear that he is struggling to keep up with the riffs, but then overcompensates by getting a burst of adrenaline and speeding up too much. To make it worse, one can also hear him losing the energy to pound away at such a furious pace, as the drumming will get weaker and almost fade into the background. The vocals are another low point, showing a total disconnect with the music. The patterns are haphazard and amateurish, almost existing in some separate dimension rather than following the songs. There are a few decent guitar riffs here, but they all sounded much better the first time around, on old Darkthrone records.
Judas Iscariot is a prime example of a rotten 'band' trying to hide how terrible its music is with lo-fi production and attempting to pass it off as "grim". Trash like this is precisely why Fenriz distanced himself from Transilvanian Hunger so much, because it was so simple to imitate that any bum with access to instruments thought he could record some minimalist music and pass it off as genius. There is nothing of value here. Avoid this.
The musicianship is horrible, even by raw black metal standards. The guitars are played competently enough, but the drumming is utterly hopeless. At many points, it is clear that he is struggling to keep up with the riffs, but then overcompensates by getting a burst of adrenaline and speeding up too much. To make it worse, one can also hear him losing the energy to pound away at such a furious pace, as the drumming will get weaker and almost fade into the background. The vocals are another low point, showing a total disconnect with the music. The patterns are haphazard and amateurish, almost existing in some separate dimension rather than following the songs. There are a few decent guitar riffs here, but they all sounded much better the first time around, on old Darkthrone records.
Judas Iscariot is a prime example of a rotten 'band' trying to hide how terrible its music is with lo-fi production and attempting to pass it off as "grim". Trash like this is precisely why Fenriz distanced himself from Transilvanian Hunger so much, because it was so simple to imitate that any bum with access to instruments thought he could record some minimalist music and pass it off as genius. There is nothing of value here. Avoid this.
(4 Oct. 2011)
