Critical reception
Professional ratings| Review scores |
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| Source | Rating |
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| Lords of Metal | 63/100 |
| Matt Morrow |   |
| Metal Storm | 8/10[4] |
Reception was fairly positive, though Kekal's side drew some criticism. HM Magazine writer Matt Morrow disliked the band's clean vocals, arguing they should have stuck to black metal, and panned "A Stranger So Close".[1] Some parts were praised. "Mean Attraction", from The Painful Experience, was called a "hit",[3] and Morrow, who rated it the best track on that album, didn't mind its inclusion here.[1] He also admired Kekal's "emotional" and "passionate" cover of the Trouble song "The Skull",[1] and concluded the band was very talented but held back by its experimentation.[1] Michiel de Rooij of Lords of Metal praised "The Only Sound of Rain" and "A Stranger So Close", but found "Mean Attraction" boring and hated the Trouble cover, as he already disliked the original band.[5]
Morrow highly praised Slechtvalk, whose appearance he had been anticipating. He criticised the drum machine on "Whispers in the Dark", but said the next three songs, with real drumming, left him speechless.[1] On the cover of "Kongsblood", originally by Antestor, he felt Slechtvalk did a great job but preferred the atmosphere of the original.[1] de Rooij praised "Whispers in the Dark" but felt "The Dragon's Children" and "Storms" fell short,[5] calling "Storms" rushed and unoriginal, though not bad.[5] "Kongsblood" he lavished with praise as the best track on the split, writing "I've just listened to it tree [sic] times to obtain a good impression…. and I think I'm going to listen to it once more."[5] In an Art for the Ears interview, Slechtvalk founder Shamgar said that while he liked "Storms", he preferred the material on the follow-up The War That Plagues the Lands.[6]
Overall, Morrow gave it nine out of ten; de Rooij rated it 63/100;[5] and Promonex of Metal Storm graded it eight out of ten.[4]
Style
Stylistically, Slechtvalk played black metal for most of the album, with "The Dragon's Children" described as a "brutal, pure black metal song" without any keyboards, while the song "Storms" delved into a symphonic black metal style using extremely fast blasting and a mixture of black and death metal vocals.[1]
Track listing
Kekal| Title | Original artist |
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| 1. | "The Only Sound of Rain" | | 6:13 |
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| 2. | "Mean Attraction" | | 4:12 |
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| 3. | "A Stranger So Close" | | 5:32 |
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| 4. | "The Skull" | Trouble | 5:54 |
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Slechtvalk| Title | Original artist |
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| 5. | "Whispers in the Dark" | | 4:24 |
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| 6. | "The Dragon's Children" | | 3:31 |
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| 7. | "Storms" | | 4:02 |
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| 8. | "Kongsblod" | Antestor | 5:53 |
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[7]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Morrow, Matt. "Kekal/Slechtvalk - Chaos & Warfare". The Whipping Post. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- ↑ Born, R. "Slechtvalk". MusicMight. Archived from the original on 2012-09-16. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- 1 2 Jonsson, Johannes (2002). "***METAL NEWS 020911***". Metal News 2002. Metal for Jesus!. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
- 1 2 Promonex. "Kekal / Slechtvalk - Chaos & Warfare". Metal Storm. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 5 de Rooij, Michiel (November 2002). "Kekal/Slechtvalk - Chaos & Warfare split CD". Lords of Metal. Horst Vonberg. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
- ↑ mpo, mpomusic, Metal Marc, Flex187, xRTx, Heidendoder, Moerdude, WildyWild, Antiblob (8–13 November 2002). "An interview with... Slechtvalk". Art for the Ears.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
- ↑ "Slechtvalk (Official MySpace)". MySpace. Retrieved 11 March 2012.
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