Unlord - Lord of Beneath (2002)

   Even though Unlord have been around since the golden age of black metal, nothing could be heard about them until debut album "Schwarzwald", that came out in 1997. It's uncertain why did they keep their demos for themselves; because they were not interested about any level of publicity, or maybe because they just wanted to wait until they can step out with something enough remarkable.  However, their first album was stunning for a debut, a determined and well practiced band could be heard on "Schwarzwald".

   Two further releases were followed, and probably their third album "Lord of Beneath" had the highest sound and production quality. Their style was unified enough since he beginning, and on the side of the evident influence of the Norwegian scene, plenty of classic sounding heavy and thrash metal themes could be found in their themes. All of their albums have been extremely intense, fast and had a thrash metal-like aggressive tone. The role of the atmosphere was limited, probably cause they preferred to sound wild and heavy enough. If it's about their local scene, the influence of Dead Head is almost certain. This wasn't the most usual approach in early black metal, but from the late '90s other alternatives became not only more common, but dominant by audience friendlier new bands, for another reason. The band's classy influences are so well embedded into the unified sound, that for first listening it might be not even notable, that here's something very different to deal with. But as the album goes on, the old school references slowly piling up. Somehow the band's music is still staying far enough from being marked as thrash/black metal. However, by going forward on this line, it might be not an exaggeration to say that "Lord of Beneath" became Unlord's "Reign in Blood".