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I got this as a promo a while back, but the disc was a bit cracked, and after I played it once, the cracks got worse, so I was pretty sure another play would frag it, and there was no way I was putting it in my 52X CD burner to rip it, because I could just see CD shrapnel splattering all over my computer's innards. Oh yeah. Anyway, I finally found a download of it, so I can review it at last. That is all good, as this is a very cool CD.

Blutklinge ("Bloodblade") is a German band, or rather was, as they are no longer apparently active. I say "they" but this was apparently a one-man band, and how a one-man band can "split up" is hard to really grasp. This is at once a very stripped-down and very melodic Black Metal album, with a nice raw guitar tone and a rather primitive production job. Rather than focus on dissonance, Blutklinge were all about melody, with the sweeping tremolo riffs creating triumphant, martial atmospheres and powerful melodic hooks. I can't say I've ever heard an album quite like this, as it is densely orchestral without keyboard wanking of any kind, and it is addictively melodic without sacrificing a gloomy and cold Black metal feel. There are almost no lyrics or vocals, and so this is really more like a Black Metal Neoclassical work: entirely instrumental, using only the vocabulary and sonic palette of Black Metal to create its moving soundscapes. That sounds like it's some kind of experimental album, and it is, but it is not an experiment in mixing Black Metal with other sounds, but rather an attempt to push the boundaries of what the sounds of Black Metal can do if used in unorthodox ways. There are elements of Drone and Ambient, as well as of Depressive and Pagan Black Metal in this, and there are some stylistic similarities to bands like Xasthur or Woodtemple, but really, as I said, I have never heard an album this unique that remains undeniably Black Metal in ethos and approach. I highly recommend this album.