Old Man’s Child – The Pagan Prosperity – Review

Old Man’s Child

The Pagan Prosperity (Century Media)
by Paul Lee

Okay, all you black metal-loving sickos, here comes yet another opus from Norway and it’s coming to destroy your homes, families and sensibilities. Oh, another bloody corpse-painted group of freaks, I hear you say? Nay good folks, think not in those terms. Old Man’s Child are much more than mere pretentious, blasphemous metal mortals. They rank up there with the gods like Emperor and Satyricon, only a tad less inflated in their epic songwriting, with most songs clocking in at less than four minutes long.

This is OMC’s second full-length disc and I’ve heard better reviews about their last one, Born of the Flickering. It’s hard to imagine that they could top The Pagan Prosperity though. OMC have all the great black metal trappings that you could hope for but manage to mix their bloody stew of metal styles in their own fashion. Yes, there’s great roaring and yowling, but at times the singer also croons a few verses just for some added flavor. The production on Pagan Prosperity is as tight as the cured human skin on a barbarian’s shield. The guitars crunch and the drums storm like a horde of beserkers. Gone are the days of crappy black metal production, you have to have a great sound like Old Man’s Child to compete with the Satanic mob. Even though The Pagan Prosperity is less than 35 minutes, an unheard-of CD length for most modern epic black stuff, it may be worth shelling out the necessary units for this. After all, what’s a few measly bucks when you get to enjoy such wonderful and wicked music. Horrify your God-fearing neighbors, terrorize your pets and sell your soul. The storm of Viking black metal is far from over!