Battlelust
Of Battle and Ancient Warcraft
Pavement
At first, I just didn’t get into it: it’s Swedish, a big plus; great band name; brutal, war-friendly song names like “The Sword of Death” and “Of Battle and Ancient Warcraft” – and the lyrics! The liner goes on for page after page of these horrible (“horrible” = “good”), evil, Satanic lyrics… I thought I’d be in for a full-on blast of fat, screaming, speed metal. But, wait, the band’s only got two members: Baron de Samedl on drums, guitars, bass and keyboards; and Lucichrist on guitars and bass. I must assume they’re both vocalists. They do not appear to have long hair and are very clean-shaven. I prepared for some strange industrio-Viking goth mess…
Which it’s not at all! I was quite surprised, it’s brutal, screaming speed/death metal like I had expected. And pretty darn tight. It is so evil though. “Armageddon Arrives” calls forth demons to slay Christians wholesale, “Retrobution” is about an evil immortal and has the line (this is a classic): “Ha Ha! Do you think you can kill me?… “ It just gets more brutal and more evil with each song… Pavement Music, P.O. Box 50550, Phoenix, AZ 85076; http://www.pavementmusic.com
