Review of Old Man’s Child’s: Slaves of the World
By Lindsey Darden
Old Man’s Child sure knows how to produce some righteous music, which is kind of ironic considering some of the track titles on their most recent release, Slaves of the World - one that stands out on all sort of levels, actually, is entitled “On the Devil’s Throne”. Now, there’s a 50-50 chance that this is the kind of music your mother would have warned you about when you were a kid, but as far as deathrock/damnable/Hell-related themes go, research suggests that it is worth one’s time.
The Norwegian black metal band – whose sound and members originated and there branched from metal band Dimmu Borgir – will shock if not amaze listeners, being about as dark, heavy metal as you can get; contemporary bands wish they could get away with sounding so good without ‘having to go there’ as it were.
It can be said that not everyone can produce a guttural moan or growl quite like frontman and producer Galder (birth name Tom Rune Anderson; Dimmu Borgir’s lead guitarist); it is eerily stirring on the track “Unholy Foreign Crusade”. However, gladly altering the rules of first impressions, the album’s title track waits just over a full minute before introducing us to our demonic tour guide, and while we don’t understand everything he’s bellowing at us, it is clear that we’re in for a hell of a ride.
Couple this with the permeating railroading effect of the symphonic components on Slaves of the World – variations of cold and haunting keyboards cutting through hot and hard guitar, expertly shown on the track “Path of Destruction” – and for lack of a better description, you’ve got a beast. A friggin’ animal. It’s alive as much as it can be terrifying, and quite frankly you might not listen to anything more hardcore. In fact, we would love to open to you a challenge – to find contemporary album unrelated to Old Man’s Child that is just a touch more hardcore. Just a touch. The grand prize would include the satisfaction of telling us just where to put our opinions on hardcore. As always, feel free to use your inside voices.
Old Man’s Child‘s Slaves of the World is available on Century Media Records; you can sample their title track on their official MySpace.
Track Listing
- Slaves of the World
- Saviours of Doom
- The Crimson Meadows
- Unholy Foreign Crusade
- Path of Destruction
- The Spawn of Lost Creation
- On the Devil’s Throne
- Ferden Mot Fienden’s Land
- Servants of Satan’s Monastery
