Genre: Black metal
Origin: Poland
Released: 2006
Website: North
Label: Old Temple
Uploaded: 19.03.07

North was one of the first Polish black metal bands, and this is a re-release of their first fullength album from 1995. It doesn’t have any bonuses, nothing especially fancy. It’s just a re-release to give a new generation the opportunity to get a hold of this classic album. And I think that’s a mighty good idea!
What we have here is bleak and raw black metal. It has a certain amount of melody to it, but I wouldn’t go as far as to call this pure melodic black metal. No, this is raw black metal. Raw in the sense of chilly riffs, gnarly screams, pounding drums and a cold-as-hell production. The drumming really pushes things forward while the intense and brutal riffing creates an atmosphere of vast forests, as the raging chants commands the earth to open up and swallow the world whole. Lyrically it’s quite pagan, which shouldn’t be too hard to figure out if you know of the band. I mean, nowadays they’re really concentrated on war in the heathen ways.
There are no bad tracks on here, but two that definitely stands out are The heretic kingdom and In the circle of the kings, the opening and closing tracks. 42 minutes of classic, mesmerizing black metal with one of the greatest album titles ever.

Tracklist:
01. The heretic kingdom
02. As hermits return
03. Purity of the tyrants
04. December thoughts
05. Ages of the reign
06. Thorns on the black rose
07. In the circle of the kings