This was my first taste of Azaghal, and admittedly I was expected black metal in the vein of Behexen, Horna, Sargeist and Beherit.  To some extent it was.  Yet it would be easy to dismiss them as yet another band who waves the flag of raw black metal.

While you can definitely hear the styling’s of the above mentioned bands Azaghal finds their own voice too.  It is refreshing to be able to listen to a 10 song cd and pretty much like every song you hear.  From beginning to end Azaghal play intensely rhythmic and fast, as on “De Masticatione Mortuorum”, “Hail The Whore” and “Satanic Devotion”.  Bombastic drumming, powerful vocals and fluid guitar playing punctuate each song.  Within all this intensity though, they temper it with bits of icy dark ambient ,as on “Ex Nihilo”; and blasts of melody, just listen to “In Deathlike Sentence” and great guitar harmonies on “Vihasta ja Veritoista”. 

Even as our ears are pummeled with relentless tremolo guitars and signature black metal vocals there are moments of clean singing and spoken word (“Nemesis” and “In Deathlike Sentence”), chanting (“Ex Nihilo) and acoustic-like interludes (“The Pit of Shoggoths”).  Another characteristic that may surprise you, guitar solos, lots of them.  Most are short, heavy on the whammy bar (I kept thinking of Slayer), but melodic and refreshing.

As tremendous as all those songs are nothing quite prepares us for “Black Legions of Satan”.  This track received repeated plays; it’s a bit more mid-paced than some of the other songs but it’s filled with great riffs.  It’s a black metal anthem played in the vein of Venom, Bathory and Celtic Frost with an excellent blast beat ending.

A short word about production, for those thinking this is going to be a shoddy, raw sound they couldn’t be further from the truth.  A decent production enhances the intricate playing and time changes throughout.  Anything less would have downright careless when presented with the music Azaghal creates.  Lyrically, well it is black metal after all, so expect satanic, anti-Christian, hateful, horrific lyrics (and quite a few are in the bands native Finnish).  Yet they are delivered convincingly and the lyrics themselves are well written and cryptic.

Amazing that a band can be around for almost twenty years and you can just stumble upon them.  It just reinforces the fact that in the world of black metal (and heavy metal) there are thousands of bands out there just waiting to be heard.