CoC : Shub-Niggurath - The Kinglike Celebration : Review

Shub-Niggurath - _The Kinglike Celebration_
(Oz Productions, 1997)
by: Paul Schwarz (5 out of 10)

The first thing that needs to be said is that despite their name and (slightly tacky) album title, Shub-Niggurath are not a "we recorded it in our wardrobe" black metal band; there is more to their music than just the "blasphemy" which they and their press release go on about. This is not to say that Shub-Niggurath are lacking in the blast beats and inaudible vocals department, but their delivery is more calculated than a lot of the terrible bands who inhabit this genre without any talent and a lot of old Bathory and Venom albums. Tracks such as "Abomination of Ancient Gods" show that this band know how to construct songs and not simply bore the listener with their "extremity". Although all this puts Shub-Niggurath safely above the bottom of the barrel, it still doesn't make them anything special. There is nothing on _A Kinglike Celebration_ which is new and, unless you have listened to extremely little good black/death metal, nothing which will really impress you: there are a LOT of bands who play this kind of music better, but as far as playing this kind of music goes Shub-Niggurath don't do a terrible job.

Contact: X-Rated Records, c/o Mathias Kietzmann

(article published 17/11/1997)