The new wave of American black metal that rolled in around the early 2000s was spearheaded by acts such as NACHTMYSTIUM, XASTHUR and WOLVES OF THE THRONE ROOM.  These were atmospheric metal bands that stayed true to the stripped-down, musical immediacy and desperation of the Scandanavian demigods BURZUM and DARKTHRONE. At the same time, however, they were bands whose bloody roots were firmly entrenched in the genocidal soil of America.  Each band had tenuous, but notable connections to their geography embedded in their music. Like those bands, Akhenaten's project JUDAS ISCARIOT is a product of its relative isolation, a one-man band from another anus of America, stuck in the middle of Illinois, making sad, angry music from the musty realms of a suburban basement or bedroom.  The difference here is that Akhenaten was doing it a decade before any of those bands, and "Heaven in Flames," released in 1999 and re-issued by Moribund Records, is considered by some to be the template for the New Wave of American Black Metal that subsequently followed.

"Heaven in Flames" is an easily deceptive album.  There's nothing particularly fancy about the song-writing.  Akhenaten understands that the goal of black metal is to set an impressive mood, that it's more about the moon in the sky or that copse of trees in the forest than it is about technically disemboweling the carcass of a caribou.  While it's still an ugly album, there's a beauty in the repetitive riffing and muddy, mixed-down black metal drums, but this efficacy only occurs when listening to the album as a whole, and not on a song-by-song basis.  This is both the strength of "Heaven in Flames" and its biggest weakness.  Third song "Eternal Bliss..Eternal Death" is a good example of this.  The song lingers in a mid-tempo groove over fairly primordial chord progressions, reminiscent of early DARKTHRONE and late '70s hardcore punk.  The verse is a simple two-chord progression, where Akhenaten shits out a litany of paeans to the suffering of life and other well-honed black metal tropes. It doesn't really go anywhere, and that's probably not the goal anyway.  It's just another tree in the copse, and you wouldn't notice it was there until it wasn't.  Does the album depend on its existence?  If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?  In some ways, this is the essence of "Heaven in Flames": the idea that the collective is more important than the individual. In other words, if no one is there to hear the tree fall, than it fucking doesn't matter, does it?

The added synths on some of the songs- simple one-chord swells that switch with the guitars- do add some pathos to the songs and are well-done.  Akhenaten's vocals linger in the typical nasally, throat-shredding black metal tones.  My wife said he sounded like Cartman from "South Park" and now I can't listen to the songs without having this pop up in my head, a fat cartoon boy screaming into a cartoon microphone, singing cartoon songs about Satan and the circle of darkness.  The vocals also seem to sit on top of the music rather than being integrated into it, which can be overwhelming at times.

It's easy to see why this JUDAS ISCARIOT album has its fans.  It's a traditional foray into black metal, and the fact that it comes from the "greatest country on Earth" lends to its mystery. And it is a mysterious record, steeped in darkness.  In the end, however, it doesn't stand out from the rest of the trees that make up this dark, cold forest of misery.  Its goal to stand tall, forlorn and eternal, soaking up the light from our single star, is probably enough for "Heaven in Flames" to stand the test of time.  The choice by Moribund Records to re-issue the album is a testament to this. If you're looking to trace the roots of American black metal, it can't hurt to get your shovel out and throw back the soil to reveal Akhenaten's vision.  After all, you can't see the forest, as they say, without looking at the trees.