In these times when most bm bands are in some way derivative of Darkthrone or Burzum, Portugal's Alastor make for a refreshing change with their thrashy old school sound. Instead of drawing influence from second wave bands such as Darkthrone, Burzum, Satyricon, etc., Alastor instead seem to be heavily influenced by Bathory, Venom, and early German thrash. The production is very raw, and really fits the music well. The riffs are simple, yet catchy. They are for the most part very thrashy, with lots of heavy palm muted rhythmic patterns. The vocals are fairly typical for black metal, and sound very evil and hateful. They may not be as high pitched as some black metal vocals, but this only makes them sound even more aggressive. I'm not going to review individual songs, since they are all the same in style, tempo, and feel. Track 8, Violence And Force, is an Exciter cover, but the way they play it, it sounds like it could be one of their own compositions, barring the fact that the lyrics are in English (Alastor wrote all their lyrics in Portuguese on this release). This CD may appeal to thrash fans as much, if not more, than black metal fans, perhaps because it clones first-wave black metal, which was essentially thrash with an evil twist. If you are looking for something that sounds like Darkthrone's Transylvanian Hunger or Burzum's Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, this is not the CD you are looking for. If you want a good retro black metal CD in the vein of early Bathory, you will enjoy this. The fact that Alastor's whole first CD, Chrushing Christendom, is added onto the end of this CD as bonus tracks makes this an even more wothy purchase.
