Review: As Below, So Above
TTHE
UNHOLY - As Below So Above
Inadvertently jumping on the 'retro' bandwagon by not changing their musical
style since the inception of the band over ten years ago. For fans of
Candlemass, Witch Finder General and Saint Vitus. Sword Metal meets Doom and
Gloom.
Earl Root/Root Cellar Records
The Unholy "As
Below, So Above" (1998 Scylding Music)
Pt. #1 Nightshade
1. Hammer of Thor
2. Lucifer's Flame
3. Jakarta
4. 13
5. Aeon
6. Flawed
7. Wicca Rising
Pt. #2 Trinity
8. Welcome to Hell
9. Night of Time
10. Somewhere East of Paradise
11. Maggot
12. Familiar
13. Lost Soul's Lament
14. Succubus
15. Two Hours
16. Benediction
First of all do not confuse The Unholy with the finnish masters of doom and
gloom Unholy. The band could have chosen more original name as there surely
will be some confusions with the original Unholy but what the hell...
My first experience with The Unholy was in late 96 or early 97, long time
ago in form of an advance tape of "Trinity". The band was looking for a
label with the full length at the time. What I remember from that review was
that I quite liked the music even the vocals were a bit too amateurish
(sounded much stronger and better on the few live tracks that were included
at the end of the tape) and the songs were quite alike and missed the final
kick. Now the album has finally seen the light of the day and as a "bonus"
there are new material in form of a full length album titled "Nightshade" so
what we have here is a two disc in one, 16 tracks and over 71 minutes of
pure heavy metal. Quite a package I must say for the underground fans...
The Unholy is pure old heavy metal with occultic tone in lyrics and dark
tone in music. The production is raw, no studio gimmicks, a bit like what
Dark Throne has in their classic black metal releases like "Panzerfaust" and
this works with heavy metal as well. The result is some ugly in your face
80's heavy metal. There is something similar than on Iron Maiden's
"Killers", something same ugliness and rawness not just in the music but in
the lyrics as well. The Unholy just doesn't have such catchy choruses or
twin guitar attacks.
The new material in "Nightshade" is a bit stronger and mature than the one
on "Trinity" even songs like "Welcome to Hell","Night of Time" does easily
get stuck to the back of your head. This is also a bit of a problem of this
twin album release: some songs do really rock and kick ass while some just
sound a bit boring. It might have been a better idea to release only sort of
"best of" type of relese from these two albums.
"As Below, So Above" is a nice underground heavy metal release, definetely
not for the 90's MTV "metal" masses but for those who dig all those obscure
80's heavy metal bands that paved the way and defined what todays heavy
metal is.
Rating: 7/10
- Mega Sun Jan 9 14:58:08 EET 2000