专辑简介

by Ned RaggettSome groups are beyond parody. Some parodies are beyond parodies. And some things just make you go, "I...don't know." Thus Genocide, who in 2007 have found a way to put together the legacies of everything from Burzum to Carcass to Emperor, and just about everything else to the north and west of said band's geographic location in Germany on their debut release, only to essentially contribute nothing new at all (and possibly less than that). When an album advertises itself on the back as "Old School Black Metal far beyond policy" in a Fraktur font and begins the liner notes "This piece of blasphemous intolerance was recorded and mixed by Baal" (along with noting that there are "Additional war commands by Astanoth"), one has to assume that this is a group that doesn't quite realize that Dethklok is not a real band per se. Further fun: band credits reading "Chaos: holocaustrings and propaganda; Tsyrtec: stahlgewitter; Plague; bombthrower bass and propaganda," album artwork covering everything from various portrayals of the Crucifixion to what appear to be all too many photos of German troops on the World War II front -- one could go on. Focusing on the trappings may seem like overly snarky behavior, but the fact remains that there's little to say about Apocalyptic Visions on an actual musical front -- practically any album by Darkthrone, especially the brilliant Transilvanian Hunger, has already been here and done that (the thin, rushed, and rasping sound throughout much of the disc is a near-overt tribute), while the line between gutbusting hilarity and frankly disturbing sentiment is just a little too fine. Bits like the bass and drum breakdown on "Ad Arma" and the strong opening to "Interitus Christianorum" help slightly, but otherwise this is no more than so much else in this style.