1. First Spell (1994)

Country: Norway

First Spell (1994, Head Not Found)

Style: Ghost metal (actually a laid back doomish metal with grim vocals)

Ghost metal, shmost metal -- I am not picky about pigeonholing every style. The music can be best described as mid-tempo black metal with distinct ghoulish quality. Sometimes the riffs are reminiscent of the older Black Sabbath (especially the bridge on ``Unearthly Loose Palace''). There are acoustic guitars peeking from the pallid background, a lot of whispering, muted drumming, and enough atmoshpere to enact the standard ritual of your average coven. The keyboards contribute to the ethereal soundscapes which make the album an experience unlike any other. I am hard pressed to liken the music to another band (a good thing!), but its hypnotic pulsation reminds me of Dark Wave bands like Fields of the Nephilim, except it is not tottering on the verge of hysteria. Gehenna is quite relaxing, a bizarre praise for a BM outfit, but it is more symphonic than Dimmu Borgir in a less aggressive and more pensive sort of way. Even the grim vocals manage to be melodic, which is an achievement in itself. The music is sinister and moody, an excellent soundtrack for a ghost story with castles, forests, dungeons, towers, fleeting ghosts, rattling chains, and overall oddity of the witching hour.

The cover photograph is murky and befitting the mood of the album, the band photo on the back might have been better (is that a woman in the middle?) but then the ghosts would probably just look like a bunch of twenty year olds with lots of corpse paint on their faces.

Verdict: Pretty good freshman effort, especially if you are not feeling too brutal or evil today (but still sinister).