TSJUDER – Antiliv

Tsjuder – Antiliv (2015, Season Of Mist)

In this era of saturated genre albums, especially a genre where evolution or departure from the original guidelines is often quickly discarded. In the black metal genre, many good records are released each year. However, a few are or are potentially labeled as great.

Directly from the land that the genre is often linked with, Norway, Tsjuder is a trio formed by Nag as the vocalist and bassist, Draugluin on guitars, and Anti-Christian on the drums. Formed in 1993, disbanded in 2006 and reformed in 2010 Tsjuder is one of the few formations to have kept their true roots and continue to make a high standard of music despite line-up changes and time. Compared to the former great Gorgoroth, Tsjuder is an example of consistancy and quality. While Gorgoroth is now a pale copy of itself.

With Antiliv, black metal is still true to its roots while some elements of other metal genres are gently incorporated. The quality of the production is admirable and proves that bm doesn’t need lo-fi shitty sound to be kvlt (cult) or trve (true). The record works great as an ensemble and runs at a nice length.

In fact, this is one of the best classic black metal album I’ve heard this year.

8.6