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So, Quorthon is dead, and the magnificence that was Bathory (not counting "Octagon") has fallen silent forever. I'm not the only one pissed about that, but wait! All is not lost!

There are many, many, many bands that draw inspiration from Bathory (like, say, the entire Black Metal and Viking Metal genres, for starters) but now we have Iuvenes (pronounced EEE-OOOOO-WEN-EEES) who have gone that magical one step further and decided to just go ahead and sound just like fucking Bathory. Now I am not going to claim that either A) that is in itself bad, or B) that Iuvenes are as good as Bathory – neither of those things are true. Some have said that this kind of clone band is not worth your time, but I think that there is no such thing as being too into Bathory. If it were possible, then this band would be the poster-child for the condition. This album sounds almost exactly like "Blood Fire Death" – the riff-patterns, the epic songs, the atmospheric keyboard touches, the production, the vocals. It's uncanny how much like that album this one sounds. It's so close you could play them one after the other and if you were not paying attention, you'd think it was just the same album over again. Now I think "Blood Fire Death" is about a perfect album, so an album that apes it this well is still a lot of fun, even if the riffs and songwriting are not quite up to par.

So if you like old Bathory, this is a no-brainer, as this is as close to the real thing as you can get anymore. I am told that the band's other albums are even better than this one, so I will have to track those down. Oh wait, this is a No Colors release, so I won't be able to find them anywhere. Pity. Still, if you are a fan of "Blood Fire Death" or "The Return" then "When Heroes Will Rise" should be on your shopping list.