Thorns on the Black Rose

North, from Poland, formed in ’92 and “Thorns on the Black Rose” is the first band’s full length album. In this album the band plays raw, frozen Black Metal with epic elements. The songs’ rhythms are mainly fast with mid – tempo passages. The riffs clearly belong to the north European Black Metal style with obvious the epic elements. Also in some parts there are melodies with a strong melancholic element, melodies of dsbm in their early form.

The guitars, although they are quite dirty, they play every riff very well without losing even one note. Also the work that has been done in the bass lines is very good. However the sound of the bass can’t be heard clearly in every part. The big disadvantage of the album is the drums. Certainly, it isn’t the way of playing nor the abilities of the drummer. I can say that he has a lot of potential. The disadvantage is the sound of the drums. It is very dry, flat and empty. Also the fact that the drums’ volume is so high, makes the overall sound of the album empty and in some part it becomes annoying. The vocals in some parts are harsh, in other parts are whispering and in other are screams which reminds of dsBM vocals. In general they are very expressive and I liked a lot those changes depending on the feeling. The lyrics are dark, epic, they deal with war and warriors with a melancholic view – aesthetic and a dark – romantic feeling. The production is dirty but the drums and the bass’ sound should have been much better.

Generally the album is very good and if there were no problems concerning the production and the mixing this would be one of the classic albums of the ‘90ies.