In my early teens, I was into Black Metal in a big way, I listened to anything and everything that was labeled Black Metal and had an unreadable logo on the cover. But as the years rolled on, I must confess that I left most of those days behind, and very few bands coming from the genre stayed with me. Frankly, over the years the Black Metal scene became oversaturated with crap. Either it was kids trying to copy the raw productions of the likes of early MAYHEM (not realizing that the raw production was due to lack of funds and not a stylistic choice), or it was those same kids trying to capitalize on the success of symphonic bands such as CRADLE OF FILTH and DIMMU BORGIR who rose to prominence in the mid-90s.

So as a fan of some of the originals you can imagine my dread whenever I had to have my ears soiled by some of the "New Breed" of Black Metal. In 1998 however a band rose up which was different in many ways to the standard of Black Metal, that band was the Swedish WATAIN. And so when I saw the opportunity to review their latest offering, I jumped at the chance. "The Wild Hunt" certainly stays true to form for the band, there's no heavy stylistic changes.

The album opens with the instrumental "Night Vision", a song very representative of the band, its opening is haunting, mellow and creepy as it slowly turns into somewhat slow paced but already heavy tremolo picking, as it ends we hit "De Profundis" and it's .... Black fucking Metal, fast, furious, angry, monstrous, yet at the same time surprisingly catchy and melodic, pretty much what you'd expect from WATAIN. "All That May Bleed" stands out as a great almost "funky" song with some Groove / Thrash Metal influences build in. "The Child Must Die" is another example of WATAIN's ability to mix the classic Black Metal sound with more of a Heavy Metal sounds, something which bands like EMPEROR did very well, but WATAIN certainly perfected that system. "They Rode On" is another piece of awesomeness to sink your teeth into, this is an 8 minute 43 second power ballad sung with purely clean vocals and combining incredible guitar work.

This album is a great piece for anyone who loves the genre of Black Metal, it combines the classic style of Symphonic Black Metal with Heavy, Thrash, Doom and even Progressive. This is truly one of the finest albums in the genre I've heard in years.