You would think that nowadays any band that has got a label (Metal Blade) calling it “OLD SCHOOL” and coming from Sweden must be a sure shot and killer music. But no, there were few less inspiring exceptions, like Watain.

So far “Trident Wolf Eclipse” wasn’t able to convince me at all. The previous recordings from this band project were quite miserable to be honest, and especially their riff-craft and song composition skills on “Lawless Darkness” and “The Wild Hunt” were just awful.

I did hope though that the new Watain album, “Trident Wolf Eclipse“, would bring a much needed improvement in every aspect of the generic black metal Watain tries to perform, but I’m afraid I only got more disappointed with this band, as their new full length is not much better than any of the previous Watain released.

Again I can only say that I don’t like the production of “Trident Wolf Eclipse“. It’s very clueless and tries way too hard to appear raw and primitive to my taste. Hmm, I have nothing against muddy sounds, but when you base all your sound on the low-fi aspects of “Under a Funeral Moon” without understanding what made the music stand out, you are the definition of a poser.

Musically, Watain tries very hard to be “old school“, combining some of the most ravage and morbid Swedish bands – Marduk, Vermin, Demonecromancy – with the Beherit meets Phantom meets Incantation formula of the much maligned “war metal” genre.

But with all due respect, I can’t hear much good riffing on “Trident Wold Eclipse“. Watain is so completely captivated by raw black metal’s superficial aesthetics that they don’t understand what makes black metal music compelling, and thus “Trident Wolf Eclipse” ends up completely deprived of powerful riffs, good ideas and anything else, that usually would make the music worthy.

Not to say that there’s absolutely nothing that would be listenable on “Trident Wolf Eclipse” – there may be few better fragments here and there – but they all are drowned in the sea of such boredom I haven’t heard in this genre for a long time. Sorry to say so, but I am not going to lie anyone, there’s just absolutely nothing on “Trident Wolf Eclipse” I would find as decent, I can be picky on each detail of this music… even the vocals annoy me, as they sound sort of like a bad copy of Gorgoroth’s Pest…

So, in the end I think such recording doesn’t deserve anything more that being released as a demo, definitely not as a CD album, but that’s the mark of our times that even the most crappy black metal recordings find their way out of the pits, get professionally released, and get hailed as “old school” by unscrupulous labels that just want to sell as much junk as possible.

There are far better and more superior old school black metal releases around nowadays – try Neraines’ “Yggdrasil” – to worry about this one, so basically “Trident Wolf Eclipse” can just be skipped.