Band:	Judas Iscariot
Album:	Distant In Solitary Night
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	1999
Guest review by:	Silent Creeper

01. The Wind Stands Silent
02. Where The Winter Beats Incessant
03. The Black Clouds Roll Under The Parapet Of The Sky
04. The Clear Moon, And The Glory Of The Darkness
05. To The Black Tower Of Victory
06. In The Bliss Of The Eternal Valleys Of Hate
07. Portions Of Eternity Too Great For The Eye Of Man

Judas Iscariot is a US one-man Black Metal band formed by Akhenaten. In my opinion it is one of the greatest and the most underrated Black Metal bands, who forever stayed in metal underground and never reached the popularity of some of the other bands from same era which have cult status nowadays. Distant In Solitary Night is his fourth album and in my opinion his best release.

This album does not differ much from his previous work and contains seven songs which are pretty long, but never become boring. All songs are based on minimalistic, simplified but very original guitar riffs that often repeat, but still are agitated enough that they never sound monotonous at all. The same is with the vocals; they don't change for a bit throughout the whole album. The drumming is very sloppy, sometimes too fast and sometimes too slow but still fits in the songs perfectly. Production is raw and creates this great dark atmosphere though it's often too quiet. Lyrics are full of hate, grimness and pure nihilism. One word: black metal perfection. Unfortunately lots of people connect Judas Iscariot with National Socialistic ideology because of his nihilistic lyrics and saying that philosophers Nietzsche and Heidegger were the main influence on his music. Even though nihilism is not the same as National Socialism and also Akhenaten always denied being National Socialist.

Distant in Solitary Night is one of those "cult" albums that every single black metal fan should have in his collection. It's amazing in its simplicity so maybe fans of more "complicated" stuff as its technical black metal will not like it. But all others - get it immediately.