Tidfall - Instinct Gate
Nuclear Blast - 2001
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Nuclear Blast website.
Oh, joy. Just what the world needs. Another Norwegian black metal band. You'll forgive me if I'm somewhat sceptical that these upstarts have anything new to offer.
Oh, hang on a minute... that intro to first track 'Children Of Man' doesn't sound very typical Norwegian black metal-style, does it? In fact, it rather puts me in mind of an industrial rock drum machine loop circa NIN's 'Things Falling Apart'...
The previous two paragraphs were a documentation of the first thoughts to go through my head upon receiving and first playing the latest Tidfall album. Most sane people would agree that, as a genre, black metal is more overcrowded than Marks & Spencers during the January sales, and this obviously means that any BM band is going to have to come out with something fairly special to actually get noticed.
Tidfall have obviously realised this, and the end result is an album that is both a CD en hommage to their Norwegian predecessors in the scene, but also a signpost to the possible future of the genre. Sort of contemporary BM with traditional BM influences, if that isn't too obtuse a tag.
Of course, all the typical BM elements are in place - promo photos depicting the band members in corpse-paint posing in pseudo-goth-horror surroundings, infernally fast 'Look mum, I can copy Hellhammer' double-bass drumming, such delightful song titles as 'Mindraper', gurgly/screamy vocals, etcetera, etcetera... but somehow, the band have added something new. Keyboards are used, not in the typical Cradle Of Filth 'Let's add a mock synth-orchestra' fashion, but in a far more electronic-rock inspired 'Let's fuck with their heads with this sample' way.
The songs themselves sound basically like early Mayhem having a punch-up with Slayer, and are a consistently pleasing bunch. Special mention must go to the furiously-hyperactive assault of third track 'My Wrath', which sounds pretty much how the title suggests it would.
Fourth track 'Prophecy' is possibly the most typically old-school BM song on the album, with the keyboards deploying choir-singing in much the same way as every other BM band that has ever used keyboards has ever done. But it's still not a bad song, as the ridiculously fast palm-muted riffage and sinister, synthesised-strings midsection lift it above the ordinary.
Overall, Tidfall have produced a more than worthy album - but I get the feeling that there's more potential here that could be unleashed. But until that time comes, 'Instinct Gate' will be sitting in my CD player for some time yet.
7.5/10
Nuclear Blast - 2001
By Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Nuclear Blast website.
Oh, joy. Just what the world needs. Another Norwegian black metal band. You'll forgive me if I'm somewhat sceptical that these upstarts have anything new to offer.
Oh, hang on a minute... that intro to first track 'Children Of Man' doesn't sound very typical Norwegian black metal-style, does it? In fact, it rather puts me in mind of an industrial rock drum machine loop circa NIN's 'Things Falling Apart'...
The previous two paragraphs were a documentation of the first thoughts to go through my head upon receiving and first playing the latest Tidfall album. Most sane people would agree that, as a genre, black metal is more overcrowded than Marks & Spencers during the January sales, and this obviously means that any BM band is going to have to come out with something fairly special to actually get noticed.
Tidfall have obviously realised this, and the end result is an album that is both a CD en hommage to their Norwegian predecessors in the scene, but also a signpost to the possible future of the genre. Sort of contemporary BM with traditional BM influences, if that isn't too obtuse a tag.
Of course, all the typical BM elements are in place - promo photos depicting the band members in corpse-paint posing in pseudo-goth-horror surroundings, infernally fast 'Look mum, I can copy Hellhammer' double-bass drumming, such delightful song titles as 'Mindraper', gurgly/screamy vocals, etcetera, etcetera... but somehow, the band have added something new. Keyboards are used, not in the typical Cradle Of Filth 'Let's add a mock synth-orchestra' fashion, but in a far more electronic-rock inspired 'Let's fuck with their heads with this sample' way.
The songs themselves sound basically like early Mayhem having a punch-up with Slayer, and are a consistently pleasing bunch. Special mention must go to the furiously-hyperactive assault of third track 'My Wrath', which sounds pretty much how the title suggests it would.
Fourth track 'Prophecy' is possibly the most typically old-school BM song on the album, with the keyboards deploying choir-singing in much the same way as every other BM band that has ever used keyboards has ever done. But it's still not a bad song, as the ridiculously fast palm-muted riffage and sinister, synthesised-strings midsection lift it above the ordinary.
Overall, Tidfall have produced a more than worthy album - but I get the feeling that there's more potential here that could be unleashed. But until that time comes, 'Instinct Gate' will be sitting in my CD player for some time yet.
7.5/10
