Band:	Berserk
Album:	Return Of The Ancient Laws
Style:	Pagan black metal
Release date:	1999

01. The Wind Marks Us Its Celtiberian Law
02. Forest Of Souls In The Wolf's Land
03. The Great Celtiberia
04. La Tene's Sons
05. Cries Of Blood And Hate [live] [2004 re-release bonus]
06. Astapa´s Ashes [live] [2004 re-release bonus]
07. Gaze At The Sky [live] [2004 re-release bonus]
08. Lost Wisdom [Burzum cover] [live] [2004 re-release bonus]

Return Of The Ancient Laws is the first demo of the Black Metal combo from Spain, Berserk. It's always interesting to listen to the first release of a band, at least you can the evolution of the band and some things like that, but you have also a risk, the one to be really disappointed in comparison of their last releases but you can also be really disappointed by the problem number one of a lot of Demon, the quality of the sound. And unfortunately that's the problem of this cd?

Berserk is a real good band of true Black Metal, their texts talk in general about paganism and the music of the band is very minimalist. Not very melodic with in general a middle tempo, the music of Berserk is however really aggressive and powerful. This demo, "Return Of The Ancient Laws" even if it was recorded in 1999 was already in the true spirit of the band, the one that we know now. The songs aren't bad in fact, not really great too, but honest for a first demo, and we can find interesting parts in each song. But damn there is a real problem, the sound is more than crappy, horrible!!! If we can listen to easily this is really hard to hear the voice of the singer but also the drums. The sound of the guitar is too loud, no really that's not cool to listen to this kind of music. I know that a lot of Black Metal Heads like this kind of sound but not me sorry, and I'm wondering if it is a good idea to re-edit this demo which suffers of a too numerous lacks of production. However, for the tracks recorded in live that's definitely better, ok that's maybe not perfect but at least we can hear something? And you could listen to a good cover of Burzum, Lost Wisdom.

This demo suffer of a really bad recording session, and well even if you are a fan of the band or a fan of true Black Metal with an horrible sound, I'm not sure that this album is a must have. At the opposite, if you want to know Berserk, I suggest you to try their two others albums which are definitely better, and which could be for you the fan of true Black.