Band:	Pagan Hellfire
Album:	A Voice From Centuries Away
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	2000
A review by:	Undercraft

01. March Of Incarnatus
02. The Collapsing Pillars Of Humanity
03. Light In The Hours Of Dusk
04. The Enlightened Place
05. A Time To Depart
06. A Space Below The Earth
07. Wolfland
08. The Wind Of Ages [2007 Re-Release bonus]
09. As Pure As The Night [2007 Re-Release bonus]
10. Onward I Ride [2007 Re-Release bonus]
11. Tyranny [2007 Re-Release bonus]
12. Christ's Last Breath [2007 Re-Release bonus]

This is a one-man band from Nova Scotia, Canada. Incarnatus is responsible for all composition and singing [well, shrieking] in this album. Yes, you read well, shrieks, so, what kind of music are we dealing here with? Black Metal, good everyone, I see you've been doing your homework. So, I must warn you, if you don't like rawish black metal, stop reading, this is not for you, but if you like black metal with an "I'm-in-the-woods-at-winter-time" feel, proceed.

I've got to be honest, I'm not a big fan of black metal, but the thing that attracted me to give this Cd a try was the cover art, is just great! Really kicks ass! A dark passage in the woods, at winter time.. great artwork!

Anyway, I'm going to be very impartial on this one. What do we have here? mainly black metal kinda low-produced, with a whole dark vibe to it. I think haunting is the word to define this one, Keyboards enhances the whole "haunting" experience. The cool thing about this one is that the cover art goes hand in hand with the music, all records should be like that, the cover art must represent in one way or another the essence of the music.

They're 3 instrumentals on this one that helps to create the atmosphere 'March of Incarnatus' a keyboard intro, nothing especial, 'The Enlightened Place' a very nice acoustical song, and finally 'A Space Below The Earth', this one is really eerie! Could be easily part of an horror movie soundtrack!

The other songs are very epic, with quiet interludes, accompanied by the evil-creature-of-the-forest voice.

One thing that sets Pagan Hellfire apart from the hundreds of black metal groups playing nowadays, is that he doesn't recur to the used-to-death topics of black metal, like Satanism and Nordic mythology, 1 point for Pagan Hellfire. But, the music itself doesn't bring something new to the scene, I've heard this type of black metal hundreds of times before. 1 point less for Pagan Hellfire.

So? At the end what do we have here? I entertaining album, but like I said before, I don't like Black Metal all that much, so this one is not going to be on my playlist for long.

The talent is there, Incarnatus just needs to find the path to separate himself from many other bands doing the same. I bet he will do it. Best of Lucks!