Old Man's Child Slaves of the World

Black metal is in the midst of a small resurgence these days. With acts like Nachtmystium and Wolves in the Throne Room getting the nod from Pitchfork and the often execrable (but undeniably popular) bursts of black metal posturing by deathcore acts, longtime fans of the genre are more and more likely to encounter a scarf-wearing, hyper-ironic hipster name-checking black metal as "something they're jamming to lately." No matter how much things change, it's nice to see old standards releasing material that remains relevant. And while he has never quite managed to re-invent the wheel with his work, frontman/multi-instrumentalist Galder has amassed quite a run of solid work over the years (Dimmu Borgir notwithstanding.) For me, Old Man's Child occupied the middle-ground. Generally better produced, with more texture (but slightly less viciousness) than your average trebly demo tape made by corpsepainted basement dwellers. They were never as embarrassingly over-produced as some of the latter-day symphonic black metal acts out there. Galder's previous work under the Old Man's Child name had a few slumps here and there, but it was a decent taste of things to come: Slaves of the World seems to be a continuation of the sleeker production and increased emphasis on song structure found on Vermin. Galder shifts comfortably between death metal-styled machinegun riffs and brittle black metal axework, snarling (thankfully) incomprehensible lyrics with astonishing venom. The one major critique I have is Galder's use of keyboards during the songs. He capably uses them to incorporate some nicely-timed doses of atmosphere, but once Galder shifts back to guitar, they are quickly lost in the mix; not irritatingly so, but I think with a bit more finesse, it would have shifted Slaves of the World from very good to great. Pete from Darkane does a phenomenal job behind the drum kit, providing Galder with a sturdy but responsive rhythmic foundation to build the album on. (This is especially evident during the drum/piano interplay during "Ferden Mot Fienden's Land" - one of the few truly excellent uses of the piano on this album.) Given that Galder has been at this (with varying degrees of enthusiasm) since the early 90s, I have to say I'm impressed. I've never been a huge proponent of black metal, but when an act like Winds of Plague is served up as such and people shovel it down with a smile, it's truly heartening to see a band that knows what they're doing release a really solid album. Bottom Line: Perhaps I shouldn't be this enthusiastic about just a "very good" addition to OMC's catalogue, but if I had to choose between a band with a decade-long career of good-to-very-good releases and a band that releases one great album and spends the rest of their career shitting the bed and giving each other piggyback rides, I'll take the first one, thanks.