In the wonderful genre of black metal, there are many bands that seem to get heaps of praise for no discernable reason. Foremost among these, in my mind, are the French "Black Legions," which apparently include Vlad Tepes, Belketre, Torgeist, and this band, Mutiilation. Now, since the only readily available releases by these bands (unless you're willing to use mommy's credit card and pay anywhere from $30-100+ US on ebay) are Vermeth's "Your Ruin" (Vermeth is Torgeist under a new name) and Mutiilation's "Black Millenium," I opted to get this one, as I hear much more praise about this band than the other (plus I listened to some Torgeist tracks and thought they were garbage).

Let me first state that it is quite impossible for any band to live up to the hype that I've heard (hype among the black metal community, not the general populace, so don't whine to me about that). Vlad Tepes comes close in my mind, simply awesome riffs…but anyways, I digress. Does this live up to the hype? Of course not. Is it a good album? Why yes, yes it is. Admittedly it took me several listens to actually get into it, but after that I found it to be quite enjoyable. There's a morbidly dark atmosphere present that so many bands attempt to pull off yet manage to fail miserably at.

Those of you who are familiar with the earlier albums may be a bit surprised at some of the changes here, especially vocally. Before he had sort of a screamy Quorthon-ish style, now he's more like a totally insane Cronos with a bit of a "sick" sound added. The guitars contain a surprising amount of melody, at least for a "cult" black metal band (remember kids, to be cult, only use 3 power chords per song!). Many times a dark riff will be played and then a harmonizing overlaying melody will be played a few times, disappear, and re-appear at a later part of the song. The drums (machine?) pace along with the guitar, there's nothing really fantastic to comment on them, but at least they're not awful. And now we get to the other BIG change other than the vocals: the production. While the older releases were probably recorded on a four track (at most!), this one seems to be almost professionally done. Everything is clear and audible, a thing almost unheard of in a Mutiilation release, in fact I'm sure this turned off many a black metal fan when they heard this.

Stand out tracks are "Black As Lead And Death" with it's great ending that will have everyone screaming along, and of course "The Hanged Priest," an all around fantastically morbid song.

Anyways, as I said, a great release. Of course it can't live up to all of the hype, but that doesn't mean it still isn't a quality album.

7.5/10