HOLY DEATH - The Knight, Death And The Devil reissue 2CD
Old Temple
And here is why reissues are important. HOLY DEATH was a little old black metal band from Krakow, Poland. They started out in the early nineties and called it a day in 2007. Over their career they put out plenty of rarities like demos, lots of demos plus a few split releases. They also managed to release three full lengths over their career.
It wasn't until after their demise that interest in them, basically from us in the west, started to peak. Actually interest in all Eastern European extreme metal peaked in the late 2000's along with illegal downloads of their releases. But that's another topic. The Knight, Death And The Devil was HOLY DEATH's third and final full length which came out in 2005.
Musically HOLY DEATH's brand of black metal was fairly interesting if you compared em to their contemporaries. They used keyboards sparingly but were not a symphonic act. A lot of ambient atmosphere creating elements along with samples were also implemented. Their sound was heavy almost in a BATHORY way with a duel attack of either mid paced style or full on viciousness. They also added some elements of death metal and thrash to their overall sound. The guitar riffs and soloing are not in the dynamics of traditional black metal.
The vocals, at least on this one, by Necronosferatus Guardian Luciferis came across like sermons from a possessed priest. The original release contained nine original tracks and three covers. The band covered BATHORY's "Call from the Grave", ACCEPT's "Princess of the Dawn" and "Beat of Flame" by HELLIAS. The latter band, HELLIAS, are a Polish thrash act that HOLY DEATH's guitarist was also in.
The bottom line is that the original The Knight, Death And The Devil release was down right awesome. It's also an unheralded classic as far as Polish black metal goes. So now with this reissue, which is two CD's worth of music, you get a lot to deal with. The first CD contains the original release from 2005 plus there's some instrumental versions of this album's songs. That's cool if you're into that.
Now the second CD here contains what sounds like a different and lo-fi mix of the album plus there's an industrial mix of one the album's original tracks, "Standing Under the Crosstracks". If that ain't enough there's two more covers added. One by the old Polish heavy metal act TSA "Heavy Metal Swiat" and "Flower's Red" by SABBAT. So all in all that's thirty-two songs with a run time of an hour and a half plus. One of the best reissues you'll find in 2021.
LISTEN HERE:
https://oldtemple.bandcamp.com/album/holy-death-the-knight-death-and-the-devil
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