Black River - Black 'n Roll

Seeing a sticker on the cellophane that read “featuring members of Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, and Vader” nearly caused me to soil my pants. Members of three bands that are always in heavy rotation with me all in one band? Sign me up. Black ’n Roll marks the second time that this supergroup has gotten together to record an album. It was officially released back in September of 2009 but never made its North American debut until July 20th of this year.

Now with all that out of the way I can talk about the major disappointment that this record ended up being for me. Seeing that members of Vader, Dimmu, and Behemoth were making up this musical outing, I fully expected to hear the heaviest Blackened Death record that was ever created. I was so full of great anticipation I half expected to have the flames of Hell surround me as I popped the disc into my car stereo. Instead of getting this expected auditory assault and battery, I was delivered nothing more than your standard Stoner Metal album. I was definitely caught off guard.

This isn’t the first time that and it certainly won’t be the last time that I’ve been delivered something that wasn’t what I was planning on hearing. In my past experience I seem to go in one of only two directions. I both quickly embrace the different sound and tend to love it or I’m so jaded of not being given what I wanted that I hate it. In the case of Black River it unfortunately falls in the latter category. It’s not that this album is terrible musically it’s just something I completely did not want to hear. Stoner Rock/Metal is something I really need to be in the mood for and if I’m not in that mood; your band stands no chance on making a good first impression.

So from an objective point of view, the album falls pretty much in your mediocre area of the genre. I gave the album a few listens to give the best opinion on the music that I could and I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. It’s nothing you’ve never heard before. I don’t want to discourage anyone that is a fan of the “riff” to not check this out because if anything, it provides you 11 new tunes to rock out too. For me though, this will probably be shelved for a long time since I just don’t care.


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