Cerberus – Chapters of Blackness
Germany’s Cerberus embrace everything wrong with “trend” black metal in terms of fetish wear and a corpse painted appearance (along with what appears to be happy smiles on their paint slathered faces), but I’ll be damned if their music isn’t well done and full of interesting hooks and turns in the music. Even for “cult” based black metal, this quartet mix a chilly rawness with a strong sense of structure and riff ideas that breathe with interesting movement and excellent use of melody that shares some influence with harder edge punk. Having a human drummer really benefits this material, giving it even more of an atmosphere and much needed swing (something a machine can never correctly reproduce). Vocally, the harsh screams are what you’d expect for this style of music and of course fit the flow and aggression perfectly as Cerberus focus on interesting mid paced compositions that do dip into folk melodies on occasion as found on “Screams of Cerberus”. The more I’ve spun this album, the more connection and familiarity is revealed, making “Chapters of Blackness” a welcomed addition to my collection, even though the insert unveils some of the stupidest band photos I have quite possibly ever seen. There is a CD ROM video available on here for the track “Was War Vergeht”, but I’m seriously frightened to view what contrived gothic unholiness undoubtedly lurking within. I like this CD as is… to see the band members frolicking about, parading their most evil of poses, just may tip the scales in favor of the circular file. – Marty
SCHWARTZDORN PRODUCTION
Worm Gear 