Making things easy for everyone: today, one can think that all Black Metal bands are doing the same thing. It's a simplistic and wrong idea, because, in reality, there are two major groups playing the genre: the ones who are trying to create something new and different, and those who focus their musical efforts to keep the genre as it was in the 90's. And on both ways, there are many good bands. One of them is the Finnish band SARGEIST, as this reissue of their third full-length, "Let the Devil In" is here to show.

On the album, the band was a quartet (today is a quintet), and the music shown on it is that traditional and crude way from Finnish Black Metal during the 90's, creating a set of darkened and melancholic ambience with an aggressive musical efforts. But there's a personal somber appeal on the album, something that belongs to the band, and on some moments, those who lived the golden days of the genre on the 90's will travel back to the past (as on "From the Black Coffin Lair"). And on this reissue, there are two bonus songs, and it's presented on a Digipak format.

The experienced producer Samu Oittinen came and made the engineering and mixing for the original release of "Let the Devil In", and it keeps the same rough and crude sound that's essential for Old School Black Metal bands. It sounds raw and putrid, but in a way that isn't hard to understand what the band is expressing. But such form of Black Metal couldn't be done on other way.

It's a plain and harsh form of Black Metal that hadn't loss its grasp and strength after 11 years after its original release. And songs as the nasty "Empire of Suffering" (that shows a simple but good set of guitar riffs), the catching morbid appeal of "A Spell to Awaken the Temple" and "From the Black Coffin Lair" (both showing excellent shrieked tunes on vocals), the abrasive slow parts of "Nocturnal Revelation" and the darkened ambiences of "Let the Devil In" and "Twilight Breath of Satan" shows their musical talent. But the bonus tracks "Moon Growing Colder" and "Nightmares and Necromancy" makes things even more interesting, even for those that already have this album in their collections.

Maybe SARGEIST can't be a savior for Black Metal, but "Let the Devil In" deserves a space in the hearts (and collections) of Black metal fans.