Enthroned

Armoured Bestial Hell (Blackened)
by Paul Lee

These Belgians will always live in the shadow of their Scandinavian black metal cousins (especially Marduk) and have never been able tread their own, original (left-hand) path. Enthroned have spit out a few decent attempts at bad-tempered black metal, but they remain the evil caboose to Marduk’s brutally devastating locomotive. Armoured Bestial Hell is respectably nasty, but its piss-poor tank illustration for a cover and cheap look reflects the mediocrity of the music. There’s plenty of evil and annoying vocal screeching, ripping guitar licks, and run-of-the-mill blastbeats here, but nothing to excite connoisseurs of evil and creative metal.
(Unit 15 Bushell Business Estate, Hithercroft, Wallingford, Oxon OX10 9DD)