This reissue is indeed a blessing for fans of uncompromising old school black metal, and I imagine that even back in 2004 this material sounded retro. "Desert Northern Hell" is a full immersion in fast as hell Norwegian Black Metal Trveness, with its trademark demonic vocals, blast beat, classic monotonous and grim guitar riffing and absolutely no holding back in sonic violence.

Some of the guitar solos and sounds are extremely ridiculous and almost overly redundantly "Metal" (listen to "Ghoul" for example, brilliant! ), but the riffs are excellent and often memorable. The bass is very powerful and present for once, reminding me a bit of Carpathian Forest's sound and successfully holding drums and guitar together. Vocals are just what is to be expected, with no frills and no surprises; drumming is pounding and brutal just as it should be, again no more and no less than classic black metal.

The only thing that gives this away as a product of the 2000's is the production, which is much cleaner and careful than it was in the 90s, but that's almost inevitable with "high profile" black metal albums. To make things more juicy, Seasons Of Mist decided to include four bonus live tracks, which sound extremely aggressive, lo-fi and of course as black as it comes.

As you can imagine I liked this album, but I'm not sure that this reissue will not convince black metal haters to change their mind. There's no innovation nor nothing to discover here. It's just a great blast from the past.