In our ongoing investigation of deceptive and outright fraudulent extreme metal acts, we pull the rug under a handful of established outfits that don’t even seem to bother hiding that they are after your money first, artistic integrity a distant second - an audience satisfaction not even registering. The more we pull away the blinds the more obvious these practices become. Maybe your favorite band is in here, maybe your life-long inspiration only cares about the dollars/euros you’re giving him/her? Don’t be fooled, there are plenty of honest, hard-working metal bands everywhere in the scene. It’s just that these money-hungry, artistically vacuum units make it difficult for everybody involved. These bands stopped caring, they lost the passion and fire. In short: they Sold Their Souls...
I had some material done already before the demise of Lord Belial. Some of the material was actually intended for the next Lord Belial album, but since we disbanded I changed around all of the ideas into new songs.
I don’t really consider it that much superior. But we KEPT the quality from 1st to 4th album, and that is something that is not easy to do! And I think there will come a 5th album that will kick just as much ass.
Ah, yes Haiduk - I remember you. I wasn’t especially enamoured or taken with this guy’s 2010 promo "Plagueswept" as it was entirely redundant and a mere lovenote to its obvious inspirations. It was with some trepidation that I started to listen to this second offering. It seems two years has done this act good and this record is an improvement on all fronts. There are still major flaws, though. The programmed drumming isn’t as nearly as dynamic as the guitarwork and the bass lines don’t do a whole lot besides doubling the guitars. Whereas "Plagueswept" was a lovenote to the likes of early In Flames, Amon Amarth and Dark Tranquillity - this new record sounds a lot more East-European, in a sense. The towering influence of latter-day Behemoth, Hate, Lost Soul and Vader is quite apparent, and a bit puzzling juxtaposed against the backdrop of melodic Swedish death metal that still seems to be the main ingredient here. This is leagues better than "Plagueswept", but the lack of a human drummer (and maybe a dedicated bassist?) is still felt clearly through out the writing of this record. It’s fairly obvious that the guitars are the focal point above all else, with the other instruments taking a backseat in both writing and performance. It makes you wonder what this guy could write had he the luxury of bouncing off his ideas of one or two additional band members. I find it hard to believe that no session drummer could be found, as Haiduk is improving drastically in both writing and performing. The thing is, Haiduk could be a potentially interesting, if not, great band. This is just barely scratching the possibilities. The guy can play. He obviously knows his genre tropes. If only someone or something would lit a fire under him, so he would compose his ultimate statement. I wish he did. Show me why I should care about this music. Anyway, the occult artwork is goofy (as expected) and the photography of this guy posing in a monk’s robe easily beats any latter day Immortal photoshoot in terms of overall cheesiness. So, yeah, this stuff is good but still not very remarkable.http://www.haiduk.cacomment itWouter 6
