This review is gold.

Unfortunately incredibly accurate review. I even checked online to see if this is a parody band.

It isn't. It's just really, really bad.

It's always nice to see one of your reviews on the front page, Doc! A good read as always

Fuck, Doc's left the MS old folks home to pound out a review... time I got my act together again.

(glad to have you back, Smoochems.)

It's 1993 again?
Reminds me of Ancient's first album and, I know this is gonna get me lots of hate, the vocals remind me of Attila.

Hahahahahahahahaha. The vocals on the first actual song.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

Ushering A New Era of Agony is a correct title. If you read it from the point of view of your eardrums.

Hi this is Kadavr here,

Wow, this is one scathing review. I'm still reeling from the shock.

It would make it easier to deal with if I saw it as one guy's opinion but the comments section seem to be heading in the same direction too.

We really enjoyed recording this album and approached it as massive fans of black metal. By the end we were very proud of what we had achieved. Whilst I am still happy with what we have accomplished on this recording I am obviously upset and disappointed that we've so evidently missed the mark for a lot of metal fans. Also, it also seems a lot of our tongue in cheek homages have been construed as cliches.

Of course we will take this on the chin and create more music in the future so if you're interested to see what happens next with us, visit our Facebook page. If you don't like us, then feel free to air your humiliating disdain here in the comments section, as is your right.

Regards,

Kadavr

https://www.facebook.com/nokturnalritual

"Song titles including words like "plague", "goat" and "hate"? Check. " - Let me just read you the list of your favourite bands....... 3 Inches of BLOOD, GOATwhore, SKELETONWITCH, Toxic Holocaust, Nachtmystium, SODOM, ABORTED ....... All cliches. This is an awful review, you have given no constructive criticism whatsoever.

Written by MJX on 14.07.2014 at 17:45
"Song titles including words like "plague", "goat" and "hate"? Check. " - Let me just read you the list of your favourite bands....... 3 Inches of BLOOD, GOATwhore, SKELETONWITCH, Toxic Holocaust, Nachtmystium, SODOM, ABORTED ....... All cliches. This is an awful review, you have given no constructive criticism whatsoever.

You signed up today just to post this, which leads me to believe you were probably linked here from Facebook or some other social networking site and decided to defend your new favorite black metal band. It's cute and all you coming to the band's defense, but Kadavr handled it much more appropriately. You should read his comment and take notes.

Written by NokturnalRitual on 14.07.2014 at 16:28
https://www.facebook.com/nokturnalritual

I won't respond on behalf of Doc here as I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but since he's not as active here and you took the time to write a thoughtful response I figured I'd at least make an attempt in doing the same for you.

First of all it's always good to hear the band members enjoy what they're doing. In a perfect world what you enjoy and what the target audience enjoys would hopefully be the same thing, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. It's hard to do the tongue-in-cheek homage thing when you haven't established a decent following as the listener won't be able to tell when you're being serious or when you're being humorous - especially because there are so many of these black metal bands out there that write with complete sincerity what you might consider to be a tongue-in-cheek homage.

Far be it from me to tell you what to do with regards to future material, but if humor is an aspect of your band that you'd like to be taken for what it is, I suggest maybe being a little more obvious about it.

Inoffensive and quite uninteresting, but not a painful listen I'd say... Could even pass as background music you barely notice but don't mind. Also the drum machine doesn't sound half as bad as the description here. It's not a good drum machine, but there is stuff out there with 10 times worse sound and arrangements.

If the guys from the band had fun doing this and are proud, without aiming to make big money or become super-mega-famous, I don't see a problem. Good for them.

So said bands do check out our reviews? Yikes. I applaud Doc for having the balls to state his opinion and I applaud the band member's classy response.

It was an alright album. The only song I didn't like was the 2nd last one. Would probably have been better received had it been released 20 years ago.

Written by Darkside Momo on 13.07.2014 at 15:13

It's always nice to see one of your reviews on the front page, Doc! A good read as always

Written by BitterCOld on 14.07.2014 at 02:11

Fuck, Doc's left the MS old folks home to pound out a review... time I got my act together again.

(glad to have you back, Smoochems.)

Thanks for the welcome. It feels good to be back, hopefully it will be a longer stay than last time. Ever since I finished school I've had a lot more free time on my hands...and you can only jerk off so many times before it starts to hurt.

More to come.

Written by NokturnalRitual on 14.07.2014 at 16:28

Regards,

Kadavr

considering your reasonable response i will try giving you detailed constructive criticism

1. intro, no comment
2. solid but nothing special, until after about a minute the high note come in that don"t work with your tone at all
3. repetitive black metal riff makes this probably the weakest song, but the rhythmic sections setting in before a minute and at roughly 1:20 are one of the absolute strong points of the album
4. boring until the drums speed up after more than a minute, then reminds me of the first deathspell omega album, so a quite strong part, after the riff change around 2:30 you have the only part of the album at which both high notes and slow drums work, also the quick bass parts are quite nice, would recommend using them regularly
rest of the song solid, not much to say other than that it is too long
5. high notes sound horrible again, riff change before a minute gets to a solid part again, the drum variation helps it, then change to another high note part, but at least the bass somewhat saves it, then another solid but not special part, the slow rest after 3:30 would be better left out completely, the song is too long anyways
6. slow, monotone, doomy, would be better left out
7. very fun, the quick thrashy approach suits you well, until the slowdown around 2:20 this is probably your strongest song due to just entertaining parts following each other and fitting very well together, the slow part would be better left out, but a strong finish again
8. beginning reminds me of early Black Funeral, but i clearly prefer their recordings, the rhythmic part setting in around a minute is another strong point, next part like first, the unexpected change would work more after a rhythm section, but what come afterward is quite interesting, another strong point, the riffs sound special, the rhythm breaks between them work well and the cymbal support sounds great
9. slow, doomy, would be better left out

what i"d recommend you is focusing on your strong parts, the rhythmic, the thrashy, your own sound expanding from the latter half of With Hate I Depise, and the quick bass injections; doing an ep centered on those elements, and then expand from there

Written by NokturnalRitual on 14.07.2014 at 16:28


Regards,

Kadavr

https://www.facebook.com/nokturnalritual

Apologies for my comment. It should be noted that I am not really into the style of old school BM you create, so I hope I didn't cause offence. Personally I think the vocals could do with a bit of work, but I imagine the other musical aspects should mature as you create more music as a band, so I'm not worrying about that. It was mainly the vocals that grated me.