MALIGNANT ETERNAL 20th Century Beast (1998) Digipak CD

1998 was peak saturation for the Norwegian black metal second wave, which made it the perfect moment for Malignant Eternal to release something almost no one heard, a record that has since quietly accumulated the cult status it always deserved.

20th Century Beast sits in that shadowy corner of the genre where raw black metal bleeds into something more deliberate and oppressive, the kind of album that rewards the obsessives who actually dig through the crates rather than just following the Mayhem documentary crowd. This original 1998 digipak pressing is the real thing, not a reissue, not a remaster with the guts compressed out of it. A genuine artifact of that era of Norwegian darkness, in the format it was born in. The tracklist includes a cover of Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast, which tells you exactly the kind of band this is and exactly the kind of record this is.

Format: Digipak CD, original 1998 pressing. Origin: Norway. Tracklist: Glory (Remastered), Zyklon, The Number of the Beast.

Fans of: Satyricon, Gorgoroth, Dark Funeral.