He’s still got it – 85%
doomknocker, October 26th, 2010
This Galder fella is a strange li’l Nordic chap. During the heyday of the church burning reign, his Old Man’s Child group appeared as the attractive wallflower of the black metal senior prom; competent, heavy, and dark, but, at first, sadly not having enough clout or moxie to poke their nose through the thickened group of rock stars and third-tier nobodies (though signing with Century Media seemed to help a lot in remedying it). During the years to come, Galdy-boy showed that he was quite adept at creating memorable riffs and songs with each successive Child album…but, in a strange, ironic twist, his exciting new day job in Dimmu Borgir caused him to, through no fault of his own I’m certain, be part of the truncation that gutted the Metallica of black metal into mediocrity. Yet, he’s always able to keep his A material for his main bread and butter, which seems to impress time and again rather than the increasingly anemic BORGIR.
So with that in mind, was he able to hit the nail on the head again with his latest offering?
What also helps Old Man’s Child that much more versus Galder’s main act is that it actually ages quite well with each release. There’s a definite feel of maturity and overall growth in the way he crafts his riffs and arrangements in his chronological timeline, and this time around, his latest seems to continue the upward evolutionary trend, embracing an equal part of the symphonic rage of “In Defiance of Existence” and the brandy-glass-handed darkness of “Vermin” but still venturing into a dimension all its own. In this day and age it’s quite hard to keep black metal as memorable and chill-inducing as it at one time was, especially when dealing with newer acts that have the desire to keep the flame burning but not possessing enough skill to do so, but it seems “Slave to the World” is able to reach that height just on atmosphere alone. There’s a sensation of loss and brutality through simplicity versus bashing your eardrums throughout the disc, and what sticks out first and foremost on this is the monstrous influx of guitar riffs with much less keyboard lines to behold…which isn’t a bad thing, really. The overall feel of the riffs, for the most part, seems to move away from a lot of the standard black metal trappings and instead takes on a heavier, palm-muted thrash metal element that helps make everything seems that much heavier and easier to digest. However, it all comes together the best, and most spine-tingling, when coupled Galder’s already inhuman-sounding growls and some of the spookiest keyboard lines I’ve heard come from the Child yet. Guess there’s still some life in the ol’ genre’s corpse yet, and this is some pretty vivid evidence to that, what with the bitter heaviness, creepy melodies, and plenty of twists and turns along the way. However, I must say the “St. Anger”-like snare drums and cardboard-sounding kit leave quite the bitter taste in the mouth, not really fitting well with the rest of the far clearer instrumentation, but in the end that’s pretty much the only major complaint on this multi-track fist in the face, with the likes of “Saviours of Doom”, “Path of Destruction” and “Servants of Satan’s Monastery” serving up plentiful helpings of demonic rage and archangelic harmonies that will keep one coming back for more.
In the end, Old Man’s Child continues to astonish where Dimmu pratfalls. Its originality and flesh-rendingness makes for a fantastic ride, and I anticipate many extra listens from here on out. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.
rafazardly 