by: Joseph Romanowski
I’m not a huge fan of shtick. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been a teenager for many years and so I don’t feel the need to publicly identify myself with any particular genre or scene. To me, shtick is an attempt by a band to distract the listening public from their music because they probably know that their music sucks. Istapp is a Swedish band that fancies themselves as three warlords who have set out on a campaign to destroy the sun and all of its followers. A worthy goal I guess, but if I can’t make my annual pilgrimage to down south to hit on cute drunk college chicks because Istapp destroyed the sun, I’m gonna be pissed!
Another one of their press releases proclaims that "We are confident that the piece of deadly art about to strike down on you all will be the first really true metal album ever to be released to this world". The metal album they are referring to is their debut release from Metal Blade Records titled Blekinge. I’ll have to disagree with the band that this is the really first true metal album ever to be released to the world. However, I will say that this is a great black metal debut and one of the best black metal releases this year. While clearly working in the black metal genre, this album is not very dense or brutal. The riffs are stripped down and simple. The songs are surprisingly melodic. All of the vocals are in Swedish, so I have no clue what they are singing about but it doesn’t matter. This album kills from start to finish. My only issue is the drumming. Although the drums are pretty much going full speed throughout the album, they aren’t much of a presence in the overall sound. The drums sound like a drum machine on crack. Aside from this minor flaw, Blekinge is a slice of Swedish black metal paradise, where only the cold and darkness prevail. Perhaps the sun needs to watch its back after all!
