GEHENNA – black seared heart – TAPE

Black Metal – A Fine Day To Die Records

I may be wrong, but somehow I have a feeling that Gehenna is one of the most underrated Norwegian black metal bands from the old days. I suppose it doesn’t happen too often when people mention this band as one of their favourite and the influence and while they may always keep mentioning the likes of Darkthrone, Immortal, Enslaved, Satyricon, Emperor or even Dimmu Borgir as well as some other bands spawned in the freezing North back in the early to mid 90’s, then Gehenna is not praised so much – at least this is how I feel. And it is a shame, as clearly it was one of the most talented and original bands, at least in my opinion, and I’m here to say that they have actually been one of MY favourites, when speaking of the Norwegian black metal scene. Their “Seen Through the Veils of Darkness” LP is undoubtedly among my preferred albums, which still gives me chills. Hmm, maybe Gehenna never got so much attention because they seemed to stay a bit away from all those church burnings, mafias and stuff like that and they debuted a bit later than the first Norwegian black metal bands? Or maybe because they happened to change their style in the end of the 90’s so much? I don’t know. It is only my impression. I liked this band ever since I first heard it – and it was at the time of the “Malice” release – and I have a lot of respect for their unique style. And as a fan and collector I was really happy when somewhere in 1997 Holycoust Records has released a compilation CD with some rare songs of Gehenna, as it is always great thing to have also demos or other unknown songs in the collection.