• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

"Anthems Of Sorrow" is one of those album that I knew I wanted when I saw the cover art. Don't ask, sometimes I'm like that. Most of the time it's a good move, and in the case of Diaboli, I do not regret my purchase at all. This Finnish duo does a good job of early Burzum-worshipping on this album - as soon as I started listening to it, Burzum is the first thing that came to mind. Even the vocals are almost as sick as Varg's - they sure are in the same vein. A large part of the songs is instrumental, sometimes with very little vocals in a song. While they do not reach the same dark atmospheric levels that Burzum does, this is still some pretty heavy and sometimes hellish stuff, ranging from slow-paced relatively "relax" melodies to more fast-paced and crunching riffs that remind me of early 90's BM. Diaboli are not exactly original but definitely not bad at all and worth checking out.

Something I noticed when reading the booklet (which contains almost nothing - no lyrics) is that member Pete not only wrote all the songs, but he also plays all the instruments. while Grimn'r only takes care of the vocal duties. I'm not sure if that's an error, but if it isn't then it seems like Pete is primarily the one to thank for this fine piece of Black Metal. Recommended.