The sort of funny thing about this compilation is that it brings back memories of when I was becoming a full on black metal fan and sometime between '00-'02 I owned numerous albums from USBM bands, in fact I had albums from eight of the bands on this comp. I don't remember why, but it probably had something to do with supporting my American black metal brethren (or something), but nowadays I own zero of those albums, which I guess says something about the overall impression some of these bands made on me back then. However in the years since I've made friends with numerous American black metal musicians across the country, as well it seems like the scene here in Wisconsin is onto something very interesting these days. But, let's turn the clock back twelve years for now...
The compilation kicks off with Blood Storm from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I have a memory of buying their album, 'Ancient Wraith of KU' at a local metalshop back in '01 and not enjoying it too much and their grinding straightforward raw and repetitive track present here is a reminder of why I sold it. Abysmal Fall from East Rochester, New York, is completely new to me, but their black/death fusion on this track is passable, while Noctuary from Whittier, California intrigued me back in '00 through their album, 'When Fires Breed Blood.' The bands brand of fast, raw and semi melodic black metal with some acoustic parts seemed like a decent answer to early Ulver back then and listening to this song again makes me wonder why I would have sold their album. Bloodshed Divine from Mandeville, Louisiana offer up more straightforward raw black metal that's really dull, whilst Averse Sefira from Austin, Texas are once again another band I owned an album from. Taken from their debut, 'Homecoming's March' the memories again flood into my mind, but the bands style of speedy to mid-paced drum machined black metal wears thin quickly.
Ahh, who could forget Cryptic Winds from Ocala, Florida? This particular track is taken from their demo, but I remember thinking that 'Storms of the Black Millenium' from '01 was totally seminal material back then. Silly me. The band pounds out fairly raw and violent black metal with use of a drum machine (where the fuck is Cryptic Winter when you need him??) that at least through this single song is decent, but looking back to that album I probably remember now why I sold it. Kult ov Azazel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida are up next with a song from their EP, 'Order of the Fly' when they were actually still known as Azazel. I remember enjoying their debut, 'Triumph of Fire' in '01, it seemed like a good fusion of frantic high speed black metal with some thrashy bits, but I could never stand the vocals, and the same largely holds true for this song. Thornspawn, ugh, yes, Thornspawn another band I thought was grim, kvlt and krieg back then, haha. Their song is taken from the, 'Blood of the Holy, Taint Thy Steel,' which is mostly straightforward blasting black metal, which I can only assume was meant to emulate Immortal, but tends to fall short in the good song writing department. Corvus Corax from Seattle, Washington, not to be confused with the neo-Medieval folky homo manpile band from Germany are the first group on this compilation to offer up something a bit different and unique. Their album, 'The Atavistic Triad' is an interesting entry since it may very well be one of the earliest examples of post or what some people would call cascading black metal, which seems to be the big rave amongst hipster black metal listeners across the country these days. In any case its a lengthy ten minute and very progressive song, which has backing synths and just a very interesting atmosphere around it, which I quite enjoy. Why did I sell this album?!
The Cold Beyond from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who had a few cult demos in the late 90's appear here around the time the band was taking steps towards a more industrialized black metal sound with programmed drums, tons of ambiance, thin guitars, an odd post-apocalyptic atmosphere and screeching vocals with effects layered over them. Darkmoon from Charlotte, North Carolina I never heard of back in the day, but I wish I had since they offer up a melodic black/death song that's quite remarkably good, well composed, catchy and possibly comparable to Dissection. Something to look up later. Krieg from Somers Point, New Jersey, who are awful and have always been fucking awful are next. I remember their debut, 'Rise of the Imperial Hordes' being rather bad and the same could be said for this song since its very basic raw droning black metal that effectively goes nowhere for nearly five minutes, but has a cute sample orchestral piece at the end. Vukodlak from Erie, Pennsylvania and also the final band on this comp. give us more basic raw black metal that's far from being enjoyable.
Generally not a very good compilation, but Noctuary, Corvus Corax, The Cold Beyond and Darkmoon definitely do stand out. The point of the comp. however was to prove that Americans were capable of creating black metal and through these thirteen tracks its obvious, but unfortunately the quality isn't all there. I'm sure other comps. like this have been released more recently, but to my knowledge this was one of the first and serves as an early documentation of the USBM scene.
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