Fast as Hell
02/06/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"When the first guitar started playing on the first song, I immediately thought of Graveland's "Thousand Swords", as the opening guitar part sounds a LOT like the opening of "Blood of Christians on my Sword" from the Graveland album. After that 10 seconds, though, there is no doubt that this is JUDAS ISCARIOT and no one else. Akhenaten has forsaken his one-man band status and taken on Cryptic Winter of Sarcophagus as the new drummer. He plays extremely fast and brutal and this makes this release stand apart from the other J.I. cds in sound. (Not that the others were slow.) Akhenaten continues his brand of simplified black metal in the vein of "Transilvanian Hunger" or a better produced, more elaborate Ildjarn. The only flaw on this release is that one of the songs is a re-recorded version of a song from "Heaven in Flames". Other than that, this is a great release that really gets my hopes up for the new full-length, "To Embrace the Corpses Bleeding", which is out now."
The best from Judas Iscariot
death metal and black metal | Austin, TX | 12/29/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"In the style of raw underground black metal, Judas Iscariot use droning and repetitive riffs to achieve moods of isolation which are destroyed by authoritative and violent patterning. More cohesive drumming and focused songwriting make this EP the best work from the band so far. Songs indulge faster riffing and allow melody to rise in ultimate minimalism from a thrashing chromatic mess of rhythm riffs. Developing songwriting technique and growing aesthetic knowledge unite in as clear a statement as is possible of the beauty and loneliness of alienated black metal."