The most succinct way of describing Sweden's Mordant is to say that it's like a 3-way blend of Watain, Nifelheim and Carpathian Forest with a hint of the rhythm guitar sound from "Slowly we rot" and miles of melody in the mix. If that sounds like it might float your boat, then I would suggest you buy this right away. If, like me, you find the aforementioned bands quite patchy in their output then I would be wary of parting with your hard-earned for this. There are some really killer moments on "Black evil master", with all of "Council of evil" as a prime example, but the flipside of that is that a lot of the material sounds the same, despite the wealth of riffage on offer. There are also some subpar moments on the album, such as "Retaliation of the dark" which -- if you were to replace Bitchfire's (yes, I know!) vocals with John Tardy's -- would sound like a bonus track on Obituary's "Back from the dead" stinker. Despite its initial promise and many cool moments "Black evil master" is a pretty average album that doesn't have a hope in hell of standing the test of time. - John Norby
has announced the signing of Stockholm-based beardos Obrero, a band that features ex-Protector vocalist Martin Missy. Expect an album in April, otherwise hear some sample tunes at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/obreroswe
Upstart label has signed Swedish rockers El Camino and will re-releasing the band's "Satanik magiik" EP in an expanded version with two additional tracks in mid-March on both LP and CD. Listen here: http://www.myspace.com/elcaminomusic
Konrad from the excellent label has started two new offshoot projects that he runs on his own. First is , a label devoted to releasing "hardrocking bands with their roots in the 70's as well as the early 80's" who have so far only signed French act Soul Manifest whose self-titled debut album will be released later this month. Unfortunately they're not a band I'll be covering, but the samples on myspace sound pretty darn good. Secondly, and far more topical for IAT!, is Konrad's other project which will be specializing in one of my favorite subjects: reissuing crucial early Swedish death metal on vinyl. They've already put out two LPs, both vinyl editions of demos from the acts Obscurity and Mega Slaughter, and coming up next will be a 3xLP boxset from Sorcery and Sarcasm with LPs from Inverted and Curse to follow. More info and samples at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tothedeath666
Mordant