Formed this year in Oregon, USA, comes Black Metal band ANCIENT NORTH. A one-man solo band, this is their debut album, and contains eight songs. "Intro" is the first. It's a short, one-minute intro of a man walking slowly in the snow. Cold winds howl, and voices can be heard. "A Glimpse Ov Eternity" is the first proper track. It's a proto-typical Black Metal track, influenced by the FWOBM. The production is HORRIBLE; maybe the worst I have ever heard. It sounds like someone recorded the album inside a bottle. The songs aren't much better, regrettably.

"Rites Ov The Demon Race" is more of the same...horrid vocal screams, rolling drums, and a literal wall of guitars. The drums sound like a machine, but that is neither here nor there. "Deicide Warriors Ov The Abyss" is a longer offering, but with nearly the same sound as the previous tracks. At this point in an album, you know what you have an where it is going...and this album is going nowhere quickly. "Forsaken Mountain Ov The Storm Race" is an utterly forgettable song. Take notice of the song titles here as well...some don't make sense, and others use the Kvlt "Ov" designation. What are they going for here?

"Devourer Ov Souls" is yet another song with similar structures and sounds as the previous tracks. The vocals are starting to grate on me now and are becoming repetitive. "Graven Takeheimens Saler" isn't much better but is the first song with a little variation in the riffs. You can actually hear some music being created here, instead of just noise. The guitars contain a mostly linear quality, and that familiar one-two step of Black Metal materializes. "The Gates" closes the album. It's a disappointing end to a disappointing album.

What can I possibly say constructively about this album? The production is horrible, equaled only by the bad songs. The album cover is also one of the worst I have seen. Taken together, this album offers nothing to the genre, save for possibly FMOBM fans who still revel in the past.