This is old school black metal if anything ever was. I can’t stop remembering ‘Hell Awaits’ when I listen to this. I sort of like what I hear, but it quickly becomes repetitive and after 10 minutes I can guess the remainder.On the upside though, these four guys are so pointy with gun belts and nails that any porcupine would eat its heart out. This of course makes great entertainment for any blackthrash nostalgian. Even the track listing sounds kinda cute-scary as one remembers what came out in the early '80s, but so true is their attempt to revisit the venom/slayer glory era. The production is immensely lo-fi as is expected of this period.
Nifelheim starts plain and simple with "Internal Flame of Destruction", which pretty much sets the tempo for 95% of "Envoy of Lucifer". I can’t say that the songs stand out from each other after this opener, but some gems are to be found as in "Open the Gates to Damnation”.
It’s easy to judge the content by its cover but we are in fact dealing with members and ex-members of Necrophobic, Dismember, and Entombed and this helps me swallow this bit of blackened dirt better. All over this album is an unpolished gem which will appeal to the usual black thrash fanbase. To these people I wholeheartedly recommend this album.
