Band:	Blacklodge
Album:	Login:SataN
Style:	Industrial black metal
Release date:	September 2003

01. Login:SataN
02. Subject To Tragedy
03. Satanus Sextions
04. Tormentor
05. Need A Needle To Tap In The Vein
06. The Empress
07. Mors Ultima Ratio
08. Redway.org
09. Suicide Tutorials
10. An Error In Darkness
11. T.A.O.S. (The Arrival Of SataN)
12. W.Y.N.F.S. (Whiten Your Nose For SataN)

I'm starting to believe that there is something horribly, horribly wrong in France. When you examine a few of the bands that country has vomited out in recent years, you can only come to one conclusion: the people over there are sick. It probably started with Mütiilation, the one man project by the famous drug addict Willy Roussel. While Mütiilation was relatively innocent, at least he did not glorify drug use, somewhere in time, something went wrong.

Suddenly there was Diapsiquir, who were a bunch of indescribable psychopaths, whose music is some of the most twisted and sick (and brilliant) music you'll ever hear. On top of that the members of La Division Mentale escaped from their isolation cells and unleashed their tormented and warped visions on society. And now there is Blacklodge. Following the guidelines set out by the leaders of this 'mini wave', they glorify drug abuse (the needles in the logo, the guy on cover art shooting up), perversion (lyrics to "Redway.org") and Satan (album title, song titles "The Arrival Of Satan", "Whiten Your Nose For Satan"). They're even "proudly sponsored by the world's premier fetish website redway.org" (haha!). Don't google that before you're done reading this review.

From the tone of the last paragraph, you may have noticed that I find it hard to take this band seriously. While the previously mentioned Diapsiquir really gets to me and messes with my mind, Blacklodge just don't possess that penetrating quality. If we cast the lyrics and image aside for a moment, we are left with an industrialized Black metal band, much like Mysticum (drums) and Aborym (guitar, vocals). With the side-note that Blacklodge is much less impressive. At times they temporarily get their stuff together and create a pitch-black and harsh atmosphere, but that happens only rarely and it never lasts long. In a few songs they're even straight up pathetic.

If you're a fan of cold-hearted, industrialized and mechanical Black metal, you may like this. I am however of the opinion that that particular genre can have only so much bands before it wears itself out, and it isn't going to get better than Mysticum anyway. Thanks for the effort Blacklodge, hope you're not cracked out in some french gutter at the moment, but you failed to impress me. Now, who's next in trying to elevate sickness to the level of brilliance?