Whispers From An Empty Room   (Paragon Records)

 This is actually the second official release of ALGOL, and they bring to us an estrange mixture of styles, that can be classified as a Melodic Black Metal band, but they are much more than only Black Metal, “Dark Vinlandic Art” as the ALGOL’s info sheet said, I don’t know what the hell it means…but is definitely strangely original, the voice is still blackish shrieks, the music varies in speed and heaviness, it has some electronics elements, and some “nice” melodic breaks. I was surprised by the forth song of the ALGOL’s half of the CD, a Nirvana cover, yes! The Nirvana’s “Milk It” cover, I always like this song, even the original version…they play it sick and twisted, with some depraved vocals. But it different of the rest of his work, is just a remarkable, estrange detail. The voice sometimes sounds like Gothenburg’s Death Metal. Sometimes they sound like an obscure, faster version of the first album of Children Of Bodom but still original, and definitely not so “happy”. Good.

Then comes  SHROUD OF DESPODENCY, with their obscure heavy, nihilistic Black/Doom Metal, the first thing I note was the bad production, unless in comparison with the ALGOL’s part. The music varies in tempos, while, sometimes, the drums go at full speed, the guitars stay at a doomy pace (like the bass at Ulver’s Bergtatt), The lead guitar is remarkable, if weren’t, the music will be monotonous and boring, through it’s very repetitive, it gives an especial feeling to the music. There seems to be two blackish voices attacking, one more high than the second one, all song exceeds the nine minutes, which is…sometimes, a little to much, especially when the music haven’t much variations. Sometimes this album has some martial, hypnotic feeling. Don’t misunderstood me, through it’s a good album, I feel like it lacks something.(AP)