Gromm - Pilgrimage Amidst the Catacombs of Negativism (2009)

  Gromm was formed in 2001, when black metal was at its peak and broke into the mainstream by second wave bands such as Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth or Naglfar. While this also meant an audience friendlier sound, better sound quality, mixed style and concept (hipsterization also), there was a more traditional direction that came as a counter-effect, and this also included raw black metal. Gromm's music could be sorted into this latest category.
   However, in Eastern Europe the border between the two directions wasn't so evident how it supposed to be. Even though by sound and concept many bands made clear that they isolating themselves from the new trends, another issue double-crossed (and keeps double-crossing) to similar bands to sound as vile, nihilistic and violent as they desire to be: and that's the limited skills of the musicians. This frequently returning issue in this region results that black metal bands can't even reach thrash metal intensity, and basically nothing confirms why they keep staying at middle tempo if atmosphere has restricted role in their music and they're definitely not into doom influenced themes. This usually leads to repetitiveness by basic themes and beats, and the album loses from its (dark) miraculous feeling track by track. The same happened with Gromm. Even though the sound and the concept are promising, the feeling that something's missing just keeps lurking around during the EP. For the fans of raw and traditional black metal it might be enjoyable though.

Hate Forest - The Most Ancient Ones (2002)

   Hate Forest is one of the most characteristic and distinguishable (dark) gems of black metal in general. Partly very traditional, keeping the core features of the genre, and the same time they've found their own path, that's self-defining on the level that most bands deeply desire in this style, but since not many are able to manage it, therefore their style is more self-defining than usual. 
  If it's about musical influences, early Darkthrone might be the first to be mentioned. Hate Forest never frittered away anything, their songs offering long lasting intense and raw heaviness, that could be comparable to the musical concept and song compositions of Darkthrone's genre defining era. The difference is that Hate Forest turned it as heavy as possible, that didn't really reflect the further development of Norwegian black metal and black metal in general. The strong atmosphere that most classic bands and their followers desired to rely on completely, didn't disappear or decrease in Hate Forest's music, still they've been able to sound heavier than usual, cause intensity remained a preference instead of the ongoing reduction towards further musical minimalism. With other words, it's not about daydreaming of evil forces in the cold, dark forest, but being oppressed and destroyed by evil forces in the cold, dark forest. Massive devastation instead of dark relaxation. In fact Hate Forest did manage to play as extreme and raw music how most of the black metal scene believes they do, but they couldn't even get close. On the side of the intensity and most of the time different (more advantageous) sound quality deep growling vocals are assisting, that are not one the most usual features to encounter in old school black metal, though they work perfectly in this context as well. The lyrical concept also focusing to local mythical topics but instead of Northern paganism or viking-related references there are Scythians and the mythical cycle that was built around them. Which is also working pretty well, and probably having an even more mysterious touch, since the Scythians might have way older and ancient documented origin. 
   In total: Hate Forest's music definitely gave a genuine and determining perspective for black metal by highlighting the level of extremity that the style always claimed to have, but often lacks, and therefore supposed to have.