Perished – Seid

With a lovely, fitting to the music, name called Perished this band furiously opens its second album with ‘Storm of Fall Delight’, and a storm it is indeed! Whoaargh! With a brutality of (old) Emperor in its best form and an intensity usually only seen at Death / Thrash Metalbands this album is started in a more than convincing way. ‘Dance of the Elves’ follows, and believe me, those who think of lovely creatures when hearing elves must have seen other elves than Perished did!

The bio mentions that Perished features members of Bloodthorn, Wurdulak, Gorelord and Hellstorm; it can easily be heard that this Perished is made of good and experienced musicians, when you hear how tight this band sounds. Perhaps also the fact that Perished take their time to write new material (the band started in 1991 and their debut was already from 1998) is an explanation why their material sounds so well… In contrast to the brutality Perished displays they also manage to embed keyboards and even stranger instruments into their music; piano-like playing (just listen to the way to put a piano passage in the brutal riff of ‘Forged To Bloodshed’), a Hammond organ or something like that in the first two tracks and even an accordion in two tracks (‘On The Wings of Desire’ & ‘Departure of Cosmic Union’). And best of it all, it is not brought as a gimmick yet as an integral part of the music, which still remains heavy as hell. And the best things about those ‘sensitive’ passages is that the brutal parts sound even more brutal…and that my friends, is the essence of contrast!

And whether it is about ferocious and brutal shredding or the (few) softer passages; all is played well and mixed well together, and I believe that is the strength of Perished. This is even more clear because of the good sound of the album. Apart from that, Perished has an own sound and way of playing which also separates them from the (black) masses.

‘Seid’ has become a great album somewhere between brutal Black Metal (the so-called Norese-core) and Thrash. Fans of a mixture of the new Dimmu Borgir, old Emperor and perhaps Satyricon, Marduk and who also appreciate influences from other genres (especially Thrash metal) should most certainly check out this highly succeeded second album. The bio itself speaks of a hybreed of new Dimmu Borgir and 1996-era Mayhem. Put my view and theirs together and remember, Perished does not sound like a copy in any way, and you may have a good idea of what to expect.

Oh, and about the image they display; trust me that it is all one huge joke… I can’t imagine seriously that a band buys two polar foxes to skin them on stage; probably a cheap stunt for publicity… And at least try the game ‘Priestkiller’, which can be downloaded at their site, gheghe… In a sea of releases an album like ‘Seid’ must certainly attract some deserved attention! Norway strikes again!