OLD MAN'S CHILD - "REVELATION 666" (CENTURY MEDIA)
OLD MAN'S CHILD - "REVELATION 666" (CENTURY MEDIA)
Although Galder is the focal point of Old Man's Child, obviously, the previous two albums to me had an equally important ingredient in the shape of awesome death metal drummer Gene Hoghlan (ex-Death, ex-quite a few other bands). His double-bass assaults were awesome, and they helped propel "Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion" into my list of most-played albums of last year.
Gene doesn't play on "Revelation 666 - The Curse of Damnation", which is think is a damn shame. Probably mainly on account of that, the drums just don't sound as heavy as they used to. Even Peter Tagtgren's production abilities didn't manage to resurrect the majestic rhythm assault found on the previous Old Man's Child album. So far the bad news.
Other than Gene's absence, there is really nothing to complain about the album. Drummers Tjodalv and Grimar (sp?) do a good job. I don't know who plays on which track, but "In Black Endless Void" comes very close indeed to the drumming excellence I had come to expect of Old Man's Child. The rest of the music is, as we say in Holland, "thick in order" (in case you don't get this, it's positive). "World Expiration" displays some frantically cool riffing, "Unholy Vivid Innocence" is of a quality similar to the latest Dimmu Borgir album, and "Into Silence Embrace" uses more keyboards in a way that almost made me think of Limbonic Art.
With "Revelation 666", Old Man's Child seems to have lost some of its identity. Nonetheless, they have delivered a fine album that will - if perhaps not as often as its predecessor - spend quite a few whirs in the ol' CD player.
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RK
RK
Written March 2000