This and past decade has seen a lot of shifts and new movements in black metal. If this is good or bad only time will tell but for now the future is kind of shrouded in mist (or not, if you don't listen to anything past 1995). It's essentially what happened to jazz when fusion came around, it split the musicians between the traditionalists and the progressives. Should black metal incorporate elements from other genres? I've no idea and I'm not really in a position to make any claims or predictions. What I can say is that I've always leaned towards the traditionalist side, despite all the weird avant garde shit that I listen.
666 is basically a love letter to the olden days. Before everything was finely polished and clean and before synths came into play. But it's not just a flimsy rip off of Transilvanian Hunger, there is a lot more here if you're willing to listen. There's attitude here and sheer anger that pours out of these songs. It's a ferocious and well composed black metal that does not follow the tradition of just stapling three good riffs and calling it a song. The songs have good structure, they're paced well and they're played well. What I'm trying to say is that these guys knew what they were doing when they were making this. A skill that will make them (relatively) famous later on with their next albums but this one I love the most so I've decided to start off 2014 with it.
Hail Satan!
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