An interesting album in many ways, not least because the vocals here sound completely different to that of COF's latest releases. Mind you, i prefer both dani filth's and andrea's vocals to anything released after. Sarah jezebal deva, i am afraid to say (and i may be bombarded with hate by some COF fans at saying this) is ridiculously overrated. A personal favourite of mine this album is, though the point knocked off was due to the fact that there are too many 'interludes' on the album. 'Outro' (or 'Imperium Tenebrarum') is actually a poor closer to be honest, but the glorifying powerful opener more than makes up for it.

This album is one of their best, if not the best. It's such an awesome black metal album. It's completely different from the next ones. I just love the style of this album more than any other style COF ever did. A 7.9 rating does not give justice to this album. So I must take drastic measures and give it a 10 !

Is it just me or do the vocals on here sound a little like the vocals of Varg Vikernes (at some parts). I really like his vocal style on this one.

In my opinion this album is their best. It is a mixture of death metal, black metal and gothic metal. In addition to that, it is rawer than the others and does not have Sarah on it (she can sometimes be really annoying). It also has less singing in the background. There are symphonic elements in there, but they don't overtake the harsh music, which is great as well. I don't even mind the instrumentals that much (they are okay, but not great, except the opening track). The opening track Darkness Our Bride (Jugular Wedding) is a great instrumental track, which gives you a nice dark feel. Lastly Dani Filth's vocal style is my favourite on this album. His screams are epic (they got a lot of power and fit the music well) and his "normal harsh" vocals are somewhere between a death rasp and higher black metal vocals (which I like very much). Overall he makes more use of the low/mid range, which is nice, since it suits his vocals more than the constant annoying falsetto (I think he uses falsetto) he does on other albums. This album is the band's transition from death metal to a more black metal oriented style. Therefore, Dani's vocals are not as high probably. I just love the fact that the rawness and evilness of black metal gets mixed with the brutality and sometimes even grooviness of death metal and with a bit of gothic and symphonic elements increase the "darkness effect." I wished the would have continued with this style. Dusk is their second best album, because it is the only album where his annoying new vocal style (used after this album) actually fits the atmosphere (the scream in Heaven Torn Asunder is Epic). I think V Empire is a little overrated, but nevertheless it is very good. This version of The Forest Whispers My Name is better than the one on V Empire.

When king diamond meats dani filth gosh what a horrible vocals, those female and smoken parts was bettet... anyway I accept this as old school

Devilish and dark.
Full of gothic elements,good drum and keyboard parts.
So atmospheric yet raw material. It could have been much better if this record had been released after their second or third albums. It seems the sounds are not engineered very properly which is ok for a debut album but it reduces the quality of it.

The first guitar riff after the prelude reminds me of Slayer's Angel Of Death... This album still has strong thrash metal elements, which I quite like. But the lead singer's voice sometimes makes me laugh.