Holy Death is a somewhat legendary Second Wave Black Metal trio, one that started out as a Thrash Metal band called Gladiator in the late nineties, only to embrace – Wholeheartedly I might add – The Black Metal sound when it rose to prominence a bit further north. Quite a logical step as well, seeing as how First Wave Black Metal can trace its roots back to the Thrash Metal scene, and the Second Wave built upon the foundation laid by that. In this case, the end result are powerhouses of releases such as Triump Of Evil?, which was originally released in 1996, a full three years after the band changed both name and direction. And reading up on it after the fact, to state that it was well-received by the community seems to be an understatement with quite a few review scores ranking it in the top 10 percentile – So it would make sense to re-release it for a new audience. And I do like the addition of the question mark which was not part of the original Full-lengths title, meaning that even if you decide to buy it while owning the original (lucky bastard), they acknowledge that this is a later, cleaner, better produced version than what the world initially experienced. And as an added bonus (quite literally) an extra compact disc has been put into the release, effectively more than doubling the number of tracks on it as a whole; Going up from six (and a runtime of forty-five minutes) to fourteen (and a runtime rivalling the former). But the real kicker? These added tracks all include Gerard Niemczyk, also known professionally as Apocalyptic Hellhammer, on solo guitars. No doubt a treat of old-school fans of both versions of this band, since he was involved heavily with both, on drums and keyboards as well as guitar.

Sadly the band has been split up since 2007, but their legacy lives on and is well worth delving into for people who enjoy the Second Wave Black Metal genre, but have yet to cross paths with Holy Death. It also doubles as an excellent rtime capsule to see how the Polish Black Metal scene took shape in the early days, eventually giving us other legendary bands such as Batushka, Behemoth and Infernum – Even if this incarnation has siginicantly more in common with Bathory, Samael and Celtic Frost.

Below can be found the track ”The Son Of The Gloomy Truth”, probably my favourite track on both compact discs as well as a corner stone of what the band has to offer, even to this day.

https://witchinghourproductions.bandcamp.com/album/triumph-of-evil