The Real Christianbusters (Blood For Satan - Black Dawn)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Blood For Satan - Black Dawn
Date:	20/02/08 (17 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Completely average modern black metal.

Disadvantages: Completely average modern black metal.

Forced to change their name due to a New York heavy metal band holding the rights, this loyal bunch of black metal and Satan followers have opted to call themselves "The True Black Dawn," which really speaks volumes about their exaggerated sense of self-importance. Whether they really are into the Satanic stuff beyond the typical gimmick I couldn't say, but there's nothing about this release to make me excited about hearing any new material under their new moniker.

Treated to a surprisingly clean production job atypical of black metal debuts (but I guess this is the '00s now), this is far removed from the dingy and evil-sounding work of their genre predecessors, but at the same time is loyal enough not to venture into more aggressive death metal inspired territory like Behemoth. All of the band members are talented, particularly Cauldron who beats the drum kit relentlessly and will provide the most appeal to fans of the genre's more extreme tendencies, but their material is essentially a regurgitation (quite literally) of the generic black metal sound as defined by Darkthrone, Mayhem and others in the early nineties.

Every song is principally concerned with speed, apart from the worthless interlude 'When the Shadows Become Flesh,' and although the guitars are more audible than in much black metal where they tend to fade into the white noise, they never do anything of interest beyond keeping up the pace, as seen best in the hardly noticeable changeover between tracks one and two that sounds more like a brief pause in the former. The screams of Prophet Hoath Wrath (see what I mean?) are of high quality, to the extent that you can actually understand what he's yelling about some of the time, but there really is no reason for him to open the long and otherwise fairly decent finale with a guttural gurgle that sounds like he's taking a long spew.

Another extreme metal cliché is overused in the form of overlong sampling of old horror films, in this instance two clips in 'Of Blackest Witchcraft' and 'A Horned Moon Rising' of characters praising Satan and renouncing Christ, albeit in an easily digested, movie fashion, but overall this sounds more like a bunch of black metal fans imitating their heroes in a passable but unimpressive attempt to join their ranks, aided by changing the word "the" to the more sinister "Ye" in the final song to prove how hardcore they really are.

1. Pitbound (The 4th Trial of Acolyte)
2. A Hymn to Grand Darkness (The Creed of Hoath)
3. Of Blackest Witchcraft (The Hoath Manifesto)
4. Enemy of the Day
5. Graverape Ritual
6. A Horned Moon Rising
7. Blood For Satan
8. To Haunt and to Feed
9. When the Shadows Become Flesh
10. Within Ye Woods, Before Ye Throne

Summary: Black Dawn's first album (2001).