The debut album, 'Born of Flickering' (1995) from Norwegian Old Man's Child was somewhat original sounding black metal, but this second album blew my head off when I first heard it. And after all these years, it still does.
Eight metal hymns forged in the fjords of Norway, blended together from black metal and heavy metal. Excellent metal riffing, awesome drum work and groovy (yes, groovy!) feel that makes me wanna mosh! The songs are about four minutes long with only two songs clocking over 5 minutes. Song structures are quite simple, but very infectious and mid tempo stuff (no blast beating). The songs simply work, period. There's synths too, but never on the front. Generally, this is more like a heavy metal album, since it sounds nothing like black metal to tell the truth, and I think this is why this album might be a sort of an in-between.
Old Man's Child is Galder, a guy who have composed all of the music and written all the lyrics. Most used lyrical subject is hate, not surprisingly, including evil things. Galder's vocals are quite demonic, mostly there's two vocal tracks together. Sounds original.
Old Man's Child haven't surpassed this album to this day. And I think never will, because this is a bloody great metal record! And this also beats the debut album hands down, in my opinion. Only the sound could be better, but what the hell... "Put your spells on me and possess my soul!"
Rating: 8 (out of 10)Reviewed by Lane
07/12/2001 20:52
For melodic black metal to occur, it needs a range of instruments to properly orchestrate an album. 'The Pagan Prosperity' is a prime example of how this should take place. Of course not everything on this album is perfect, but the music, vocals and aura is simply captivating. It took several spins for me to come to this conclusion. Galder does everything right on this recording: the guitars and vocals are at their best. Creative, innovative, historic and monumental release. The only problem would be the production quality, that's my only beef with this incredible album. It was such an experience to hear this music and solely appreciate it.
Galder isn't well known for his abilities to play solos, but rhythms he's a mastermind at. Entirely original sounding guitar work alongside other instruments that this album impenetrable. His vocals flow with the guitar work totally. He is truly great from this aspect and some of his vocals go along with everything in unison. The main music that includes guitars and synthesizers together simply rips. I love the rhythms the most and if he took out the solos I'd give this album a higher rating. He just doesn't hack it when it comes to playing leads. But his creation of melodic black metal music is incredibly amazing.
The music here is totally original and sips pores into your brain and it stick in there during this entire album. One of Old Man's Child's best recording. The main things that I enjoyed were the vocals alongside the guitars and synthesizers. Some of it entirely incredible to hear. It gives out an aura that is dark and desolate which suits the genre perfectly. I can't stress enough how the guitar is so well played along with the other instruments in unison with the rest of the band. I totally respect this band's output of simply historic music. Galder did so much good here, an amazing effort on his part.
Again the only beef that I have is on the production. I felt that the drums sounded a little bit flat and the bass guitar wasn't too well heard during this release. The guitars, synthesizers and vocals mixed well together but just the snare drum was a little bit annoying. Other than that, the album in itself was simply an awesome epic release. I enjoyed it more and more that I heard of it. I'll admit that I didn't like this album too much when I first heard it. I thought that it was just average melodic black with no real significance in helping this genre. It took me maybe 4-5 spins before I said to myself "this album simply dominates!"
If you like Naglfar and melodic black metal in general, then this one is for you. It has so many tempo changes but lacks the blast beating that Naglfar is notorious for. The solos like I mentioned just needed brushing up. All of the songs are worthy of praise, some more than others like any album. But really, this one does deserve a high rank for it's genius in songwriting. I haven't heard much of their newer material, so it's hard for me to compare it to it. All I know is that 'The Pagan Prosperity' is an amazing listen to in it's melodic black metal genre. Own it ASAP!
Rating: 9 (out of 10) ratings explained
Reviewed by Death8699
10/16/2012 21:45
