CoC : Grief of Emerald - Nightspawn : Review

Grief of Emerald - _Nightspawn_
(Listenable, 1998)
by: David Rocher (9 out of 10)

As the overwhelming black metal tide finally ebbs away, all it leaves in its wake is a small number of quality, sincere bands, and a vast cohort of wannabe-evil cretins, who rely more on satanic imagery than on music itself to boost their sales and ego -- do this while you can, nerds, for the time is nigh... Take a look at a band photo of Grief of Emerald, and you will quickly notice the absence of inverted crosses, blood, corpsepaint, naked women, evil goldfish, satanic cheesecake or anything like that. Simply, this quintet deliver a style of music that can effortlessly be identified as Swedish black metal, but have somehow succeeded in gracing a now worn-out style with their very unique touch. They faithfully capture the intense, evil, unhealthy guitar feel of Morbid Angel on their masterpiece _Domination_, blend it with atmospheric, dynamic, nearly aggressive keyboards that sometimes yield the power and majesty of Emperor's _In the Nightside Eclipse_, and at other times produce the insane, eerie and unnerving feel you find on Tartaros' _The Grand Psychotic Castle_. As to the roaring, dark black metal vocals, these burn an extra scar in this blackened picture, and the masterful collision of all these elements fuses into a hateful, baleful, bombastic and technical black metal assault, graced with a potent death metal touch, whose unearthly, grandiloquent force is definitely enthralling.

(article published 19/11/1998)

ALBUMS
12/8/2000	P Azevedo	8	Grief of Emerald - Malformed Seed