Entry 657 - Judas Iscariot - Distant in Solitary Night

Style: Raw black metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: Satanism, anti-religion

Thoughts: Judas Iscariot, betrayer of Jesus Christ, first among all blasphemers. A being so incredibly devious and full of sin that satan is said to feats on him for eternity in the frozen depths of hell. 

   

In black metal I can think of very few projects that are held with such reverence as this one. Whenever someone mentions Judas Iscariot the praise is pretty unanimous. Despite this project being from the US  (and a no where town like DeKalb, Illinois at that) it's held in as high of reverence as many of the 2nd wave bands from Norway.  

With some of the albums I fully understand it. Thy Dying Light is one of the finest black metal albums to ever come out of the US. Other times though I don't fully understand what the hype is all about. Distant in Solitary Night is one of those albums. 

At its core the album is heavily repeated riffs that are simple and somewhat sloppily played, particularly the drums. Sometimes this works in the projects favor, other times it lingers too long with no progression - and I think this is where I falter a bit with this album over some of Akhenaten's releases. 

It still is obviously a Judas Iscariot release, but where other albums have that "it" factor throughout the entire album, whereas this one does not. There are times when the album is fantastic. Where the Winter Beats Incessant is a fantastic slower song where the riffs have a hypnotic sway to them rather than the stagnation that is felt on the faster songs. 

Is Distant in Solitary Night a bad album? No not really. It's just no where near as good as some of the other releases in Judas Iscariot's discography. The transitions are lacking, the riffs are lacking, the venom from the first few albums is lacking. Even the atmosphere sometimes feels a bit hollow. 

All that said, this does have that early second wave black metal feel that I crave so much from time to time. There are some times where I n e e d to listen to raw black metal from the 90's, nothing else will do. With that in mind, this album fits that criterion to a T. For that this release has a permanent place in my collection, it just won't see the table as often as some of the other releases in the Iscariot discography.

Written January 14th 2024