They say Rock’n’Roll is the Devil’s music? Behold the second coming of Beherit’s Oath of the Black Blood – this time around as an official, band-sanctioned release. It is a none too gentle breeze of rancid corpse-breath from the beginning of the second wave of black metal, as defined by Beherit, the Canadian Blasphemy and a whole bunch South-American maniacs. Tons of spikes, bulletbelts, ugly facepaint and a lot of unhealthy interests were the hallmarks of the genre.

Beherit hailed from the Arctic Circle, and led by the main man Holocausto they soon grew from the humble beginnings (that was fifteen years ago!) into a leading force of the early nineties Black Metal scene. Eccentric, outrageous and certainly ahead of their time, they finally mutated into something completely else, but at the time Oath of the Black Blood was recorded Beherit were still cheerfully churning out malignant filth which skipped introductions and went straight for your soul. Evil, pure and with no additives, delivered as a chaotic blast of chainsaw guitars, vocals sounding like the hiss of a thousand snakes and drums pounding relentlessly to the spectacle of the listener being torn apart by the black wind rushing out of the speakers.

The whole album was re-mastered for this release, although old-school purists may rest assured there is only so much you can do about a recording that was considered noisy and unhinged back at the time it was originally released unto the unsuspecting underground tape-trading circuit. Of course Oath of the Black Blood’s technical merits – or lack of them – are nothing to do with today’s standards, that is beside the point: this blast from the past should serve as a good reminder that there was a time when extreme metal was still delivered with passion bordering on insane, with little or no concern for the outside world.

Essential evil from the grim past. Discover the rotten roots of modern Black Metal.

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