Because they only toured and released albums somewhat sporadically, performed satanic black metal of the most over-the-top, easily ridiculed variety, and featured two core members -- twin brothers Erik and Per Gustavsson -- whose campy Swedish TV exploits often detracted from their "cvlt" bona fides, Sweden's Nifelheim always had a hard time being taken entirely seriously by the genre's notoriously stern fans. But, love them or hate them, by the release of Nifelheim's third album, Servants of Darkness in the year 2000, there was no refuting the band's devotion to their chosen style, nor the fact that they continued to improve as musicians -- with thanks surely due to a coterie of supporting players borrowed from other, more "serious" black metal bands. Of course high-speed onslaughts like "Evil Blasphemies," "Sadistic Bloodmassacre," and "Infernal Desolation" were still aesthetically and thematically beholden to black metal's simpler (and funnier) formative years, under the drunken stewardship of groups like Venom, Vulcano, and pre-Viking metal rebirth Bathory. But, ironically, after a decade of grim, pancake-faced frowning and ruthless sonic innovation spearheaded mostly by the neighboring Norwegian groups (Emperor, Enslaved, Ulver, et al), some black metal fans were reappraising the more innocent pleasures and sheer entertainment value (if you will) of those early bands. So the time was finally ripe for Nifelheim's "traditional" brand of blackened thrash -- best exemplified here by insidiously melodic efforts like "The Bestial Avenger" and "Sacrifice to the Lord of Darkness" -- to transition from derision to acceptance, and even unfettered fandom from some of the black metal scene's key tastemakers (notably Slayer fanzine editor Metallion). Unfotunately, Nifelheim would fail to capitalize on this window of opportunity by disappearing for seven whole years before releasing their next and fourth album, Envoy of Lucifer. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia

Rovi