CARPATHIAN FOREST, just the name should put a smile upon the face of every blasphemer living on this planet. With records like "Morbid Fascination Of Death" and "Strange Old Brew" in their discography, they have carved their name into the unholy book of Black Metal. How about "Defending The Throne Of Evil", is it a worthy successor?

It's starts good, very good in fact. The first track is a fast hateful song with lots of "evil" atmosphere. Some parts of this song has a Rock'n’Roll feeling in it's riffs. Those who have heard CARPATHIAN FOREST before, knows what I mean. It's sound's like MOTÖRHEAD gone Black Metal sometimes, and I like it. The next song up is "Skjend Hans Lik", one of my favourite songs on this album. Its lyrics are in Norwegian, and for me that adds something too the atmosphere. The lyrics on this song is pure hatred against the Norwegian government and Christianity. You see there are some Christians in our government, and Mr. Nattefrost wants their head on a plate.

The first let down\up comes in the shape of "The Well Of All Tears", a slow almost doomy Black Metal song that doesn't seem to go anywhere. It's not bad in the way many other bands are bad, just boring. And that is my "problem" with this release, some of the songs are just plain boring. It's like Nattefrost is on autopilot sometimes. Take the song "Put To Sleep Like A Sick Animal", some parts of it are uninteresting, and then suddenly it kicks in. I think it was smart of Nattefrost to lay CARPATHIAN FOREST on the shelf for a while, too get the focus back.

As always every aspect of this release, except some of the song writing, is top notch. Terje Refnes, who has been their producer on some records, knows how to twist those knobs. The sound is massive and can't be compared to Old School Black Metal in how it sounds. The image and lyrical contest on the other hand is necro as fuck (CADAVER rocks!)

There are some very good songs on "Defending The Throne Of Evil", but I think this is the weakest CARPATHIAN FOREST record to date, and that tells a lot about the quality of this band. For those who are interested in more music from the brain behind CARPATHIAN FOREST, check out NATTEFROST and BLOODLINE. (Online December 4, 2004)