‘Forever Blasphemy’, the debut full-length of Swedish Blackened Death Metal act In Aeternum, released by both cult labels Necropolis Records and Merciless Records, is still played regularly at my home.
At the moment of release, 1999, I expected a glorious continuation of their path to conquer the Black/Death throne. And although ‘The Pestilent Plague’ and ‘Nuclear Armageddon’ are good albums, I was wrong with my prediction of In Aeternum’s career, as I also thought they would be “the new Dissection”. Even though the main man David Larsson never considered In Aeternum as a musical comparison with Dissection.
Compared with ‘Forever Blasphemy’ and ‘The Pestilent Plague’, ‘Nuclear Armageddon’ shifted more towards a Black/Thrash approach then the aforementioned Blackened Death Metal one, although it is present still. Yet, In Aeternum stayed aggressive as hell and composed a fine album for the fans of the genre.
This isn’t an ordinary re-release, as it has lots of extras, like liner-notes by David himself, a Sarcófago and Kreator cover (‘Satanic Lust’ and ‘Tormentor’) and 15 live tracks of 2 different gigs.
Although ‘Forever Blasphemy’ will always be my favourite one of In Aeternum, you can’t go wrong with ‘Nuclear Armageddon’ either.
