WAN do not fuck about. This is the Swedes 2nd album after 2010’s ‘Wolves of the North’, and damn will it erode your ear drums. In simple terms, what we have here is just over 30 minutes of noisy prototypical black metal. There is only simple terms when it comes to WAN to be fair, as this is just about as primal as it gets.
Bass, Treble, Gain.. everything has been cranked to eleven, with guitar strings clawed at so hard that they’re shredding fingers, amps barely being held in physical form, shattered speakers clinging to the cabinets by tape and chewing gum, and drums which actually sound bruised and beaten from years of not only regular battering, but also constant dousing in vomit, fag ash, drool and phlegm. If these instruments were children, Esther Rantzen would be all over their asses.
So, recalling the early days of Venom, Sodom, Sarcofago, Von, Bathory and just about any of the other early days founding fathers is the flavour of the month in WAN’s world, and who can blame them when they make such an unholy racket. I recommend listening at high volume on headphones for full noise induced temporary hearing loss effect. When they’re not blasting the shit out of their instruments, growling about pentagrams, hell and satan, they’re rocking shit up… growling about pentagrams hell and satan. It’s one of those win win situations.
Want to know exactly how old school WAN are? They still use Myspace as their main web presence. Check ‘em out if this sort of thing is your bag.
(7/10 Lars Christiansen)
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