LORD BELIAL - Angelgrinder Digi-CD

For a band that is generally passed up for their older and more prolific contemporaries Marduk and are seen as a tag-along band with little unique to offer the scene, Lord Belial makes a very good show at bucking most of the cliches associated with the black metal sound here, in arguably a more pronounced way. Ultimately their 90s material proves to be superior given that the heightened mystique of the production made their accomplished musicianship and subtle death metal tendencies a bit more intricate and even surprising at times, but this is definitely a solid offering that very effectively adds a greater aesthetic of violence and impact to a style that is more generally associated with atmosphere. Whether one's poison be grinding fury or a main course of mid-90s blackness with a side order of Swedish and American infused death metal, these songs are laced with plenty of it.