Carpathian Forest's first studio release is a pretty good slab of no-nonsense black metal. One of Norway's lesser-known BM bands, Carpathian Forest doesn't really do anything radically different to the traditional formula. I do like this MCD because it's sound isn't quite as generic as some other albums from this era, and it's pretty fast. "The Pale Mist Hovers Toward the Night Shores" is a blazingly good black metal song. Slightly better production could have made this really kick-ass. The songs "The Eclipse-The Raven" and "Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern", however, are slow melodic mood pieces, with virtually no metal at all. Doesn't detract from the disc, but threw me off when I first heard it.
