Necrodaemon - Prophecy of the Decadent (2005)

   Oppose the audience friendlier and hipster trends of black metal that kept gaining wider spectrums since the late '90s, there have been other, lesser known and less popular intentions too, to keep the subgenre extreme and exaggerated as how it supposed to be. On the side of raw black metal, mainly bands and projects individual from any specific scenes have committed these alternative paths, such as Necrodaemon. 
   Necrodaemon's one and only album represents a modern, all-round high quality aspect of black metal, that relies on very aggressive approach and great production and sound quality. Because of this in the Northern scene it would count as heavy enough to get a blackened death or black/death tag. It's enough to think about how much more devastating and violent Necrodaemon sounds like compared to classics like Dissection or Necrophobic, despite just being black metal, but with better sound quality than usual. Similar bands on the side of Marduk could be named as most possible influences as well. "Prophecies of the Decadent" is extremely intense and might sound raw at first by no chance is given for the listener to chill, but there are plenty of catchy melodies and even short solo themes to find making sure of musical diversity. Similarly modern sounding and high quality releases are common to find at French bands from the '00s. This approach might minimize or erase the possibility of the atmospheric sound that became a classic determining feature in black metal, but since this path focuses on extremity and compromise-less intentions, skipping atmospheric sound was a necessary step, especially cause the popular trends were building on it specifically. 
   In total, "Prophecy of the Decadent" is a wild and compromise-less masterpiece, strongly recommended for the lovers of trve black metal extremity.