Netherbird – Monument Black Colossal

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Apparently, Swedish black metal brigade Netherbird didn’t record their second full-length album out of any artistic motivation or other such nonsense. According to the band’s press release, it was “to please the masses of fans that crowd the band’s profiles.” The release goes on to boast that the band has over 95,000 friends on MySpace and over 3,000 fans on Facebook. Wow, good thing they don’t have a Twitter, or they would have had to record a live show while they were at it! Despite their unbelievably anti-black metal social networking ethic and the comparisons to Cradle of Filth that come anytime their name is mentioned, Netherbird’s Monument Black Colossal is one of the most competent, enjoyable slabs of symphonic black metal since Emperor unleashed In the Nightside Eclipse back in 1994. In the same places where their inferior fellow genre members like Limbonic Art and Bal-Sagoth would put faux-theatrical Haunted Mansion keyboards, Netherbird uses an actual piano and tastefully arranged strings. The effect is much more powerful than what has become the genre’s standard, and it actually strengthens the blistering black metal that drives the compositions. And that’s another strength – Monument Black Colossal is an honest-to-Satan black metal album. While so many black metal bands try to expand the genre until it doesn’t sound remotely black anymore, this disc could have come out in Norway in 1994 and no one in the scene would think it odd beyond the crisp production values. Netherbird does everything in their power to keep themselves from being taken seriously, but if they intend on releasing collections of songs this good, it’s going to take a lot more.

Written by Brad Sanders
More: 2010, Albums, Black Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Netherbird