Keep of Kalessin - Reptilian [2010]

Production is way weaker than I was expecting. Ok ok ok... this is gonna be tough for me.... gotta remain objective. "Dragon Iconography" starts off on the right foot, but less than two minutes in it breaks its foot clear off. Let's get this straight right off the bat, if this music was being produced by anyone other than KoK, it would be really good... but I listen to KoK for creatively riffed and epic BLACK METAL, not complex Death Metal with bouts of melodic (puke) thrash. Fuck, this song gets worse as it goes on... more and more into the stock and well-traveled melodic area of metal. "The Awakening" has potential, but loses it all at around 1:18 when the pointless technical riff kicks in. Damn, what a shame, the chorus really has a grand Black Metal feel to it. Oh fuck me, 3 minute mark and now it feels like fucking Nightwish... ugh. "Judgment" is different in that it STARTS off awful and attempts to get better. Fuck. You know what this album is? It's a hand-full of fucking great ideas sandwiched between legendarily fucking AWFUL ideas. This album had the potential to be fucking awesome. They had a 6 ounce perfect amethyst and then they buried it under 30 pounds of fucking cowpat. I've never been so disappointed and frustrated in my life. The only song worth a damn is "The Divine Land". Extra low score for being such a let-down. Plus the production is shit.

Rating: 3.5

http://www.keepofkalessin.no/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Keep of Kalessin - Through Times of War [1997]

Way better production quality than the following album, Agnen. This is really just a straight-forward Black Metal album. There isn't the level of creativity that is found on the following albums. However, it is competent Black Metal and the production is good.

Rating: 7

http://www.keepofkalessin.no/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Keep of Kalessin - Agnen: A Journey Through the Dark [1999]

Let's get the bad over with first: The production is extremely crappy and the panning is purely retarded. However, it definitely has an underground recording feel. The music itself is very much Black Metal, but one can see the definite beginnings of taking the riffs into an interesting and unique area. There are some nifty effects and keys that come in here and there; they help keep things fresh. The songwriting is very good, not really creative, but certainly effective. If I'm looking for a solid, powerful, underground Black Metal album, this one will scratch that itch quite nicely.

Rating: 7.5

http://www.keepofkalessin.no/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Keep of Kalessin - Kolossus [2008]

Starts off pretty weak compared to Armada, but it's different for KoK, so I'll roll with it. T3 is what they probably should've started the album with. The creativity is ramped up in this album and some parts even cross over into the Atmospheric genre of music. The production quality is strange. It's still heavy, but there's a weird type of re-verb to the guitars that's only really audible when everything else drops out. Not a bad thing, though. It gives the guitars a bit of an alien quality to them that makes listening to them interesting. There are more keys / piano in this album than Armada. One of my complaints is that the lyrics are a bit static and boring. Often verses are repeated more than once. Another complaint is that this album is definitely less brutal than Armada. However, it's almost a completely different style, which is great to see and the songwriting is still top-notch.

Rating: 8

http://www.keepofkalessin.no/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Keep of Kalessin - Armada [2006]

Awesome from start to finish. Brutal riffs. Fast as fuck. Some of the most unique guitaring I've heard in Black Metal. Catchy. For an album with no keys whatsoever, it does an amazing job of creating an epic feel with the extremely well-crafted guitar riffs and song structure. Production quality is perfect for the style. There are a couple fillers in the middle-end of the album, though. Cheers for doing shit differently and expanding the boundaries of Black Metal.

Rating: 9

http://www.keepofkalessin.no/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.