Unpure- Trinity In Black

Band Homeland: Sweden

Band Homepage: http://come.to/unpure

Label Homepage: http://membres.lycos.fr/drakkar666/enter.htm

Released in 2001 from Drakkar Productions, “Trinity In Black” is the third full release available from this impressive and long-standing Swedish outfit.

Consisting of 12 songs with a total playing time of 44:14, “Trinity In Black” was quite a surprise for me. I was expecting the most gratuitously Satanic Black Metal blasphemy that would be simply oozing demons from my stereo speakers. The basic black and white CD cover art added fuel that expectation, as did the (rather cool) color photo inside of a burning crown of thorns. What I got was intense, but I was visited by images of Razor, Destruction, Celtic Frost and Mercyful Fate more so that Emperor, Marduk, Setherial, and Dark Funeral. More like “Heavy Black Thrash Metal” from the mid-to-late 80’s. Some songs are heavy and slow, some are blazingly fast, but all have a very distinct feel to them. This is not frozen and bitter grim Scandinavian Black Metal. This is music back from before any of that happened. This is the kind of music that influenced the bands that later created Black Metal as we know and accept it today.

The vocals are very angry and shouted, but are clean enough to be understood. Even without reading the lyrics, I found that I was “getting” the song, and was singing along with a chorus or two even the first time through the song. The guitars were incredible, very crisp and clean, and they were not afraid to include a bit of “guitar hero” moments where the lead guitar just went totally insane. The drumming is intense and aggressive, but oddly has sparing use of doublekick. I expected the endless roll of blasphemous thunder, but the drums use the more traditional snare/bass “boom-tap” to carry most of the songs. When the doublekick does explode, it is amazingly effective.

This is a great album for anyone who wants to check out a taste of old style Metal from a band who does it very, very well.

TRACKLIST:

The 3rd Call
The Final Call
Foolspell
World Domination
Betrayers Of The Black Art
The Ruler
Warfare
Forever Lust
Pain Within
Back On The Throne
Warrior Seed
Days In Pain