It’s a fact most reviewers slam bands simply because they are derivative. ‘Oh, this is another Dissection clone,’ they whine (hell, I do it a lot). I suppose it’s prudent not to give a band too much credit for a sound they have not wholly pioneered themselves, but I could never figure out why it matters if a band is original or not so long as the music is good. There is also a good side to having bands copy those who have gone before – while you do end up with crappy bands copying other crappy bands, you also get bands that copy legendary bands who have stopped making good music…like BATHORY! If there is one thing the world needs, it’s more BATHORY clones! Hundreds and hundreds of BATHORY clones! If I had my wishes there would be a band on every street corner that looked and sounded like old BATHORY in every single way playing their little black hearts out…

Alright, so Morrigan isn’t an exact copy of Bathory, but they are close enough for comfort. I mean, look at the name of the album – does it not just scream Morrigan’s major influence out for everyone to see? In case you didn’t get it, their second disk is rather bluntly titled Enter The Sea of Flames, which is enough to make any Bathory fan smile (this is precisely one of the reasons I love Morrigan: they know they are at least somewhat derivative and they don’t care – hell, they advertise it!).

Anyways, what lies etched on the silver surface of this disc in front of me on my desk right now is without a doubt one of the most fearsome and vile recordings of black thrash ever cut; this plays like some ancient Bathory masterpiece that was dug up, dusted off, and given a whole new presentation. Guitars are razor sharp and suitably distorted and thrashy, the drums are exact – they never wander from the guitar cadence but rather follow it totally and precisely. The best aspect of this recording, however, must be the vocals, as they are in most ways (but not all; see below) amazing; the closest approximation I can give you is that they are ‘snarling’ and ‘choked’. The lyrics are very nice and bring up the romantic past of black metal, though they are peppered with the usual grammatical mistakes and strange syntax that pop up in many bands whose members aren’t up on their English (it’s a pathetic language anyways). The songs are either moderately fast and heavy pieces or slower and more majestic ones with epic guitars and choral insertions, and both formulas work well enough. The best songs on the album are, in my opinion, the last three (‘Requiem’, ‘Ashes to Ashes, Lust to Lust’, and ‘Where the Angels Keep Silence’), but you’d be hard pressed to find a glaring weak point anywhere on it. Finally, the artwork is very nice and is much better than the utterly retarded art on Enter The Sea of Flames.