D'oh! I just wrote in my live report of the Arnhem Metal Meeting that the 17 years General Surgery needed for their first full length release might be some kind of a record. And now along comes this album. CONSPIRACY is a one man project, founded by Ukraine-born musician Carpathian Wolf back in 1988, and it took him 18 years to come up with his first studio album. Earlier, there was only one demo recorded before C.W. relocated to the Netherlands.
The music on Reincarnated is officially called melodic black metal, but when you listen to it, it turns out to be a mix-up of several, maybe too many styles. Who expects some old school death metal influences looking at the cover artwork, isn't at fault. Also thrash Metal influences and at times even classical heavy metal elements are being worked up additionally to the black metal main ingredient. That whole mix-up contains some interesting approaches and several really great riffs and hooks. But those are either almost always overlaid by that rather wild style mix or not pointed out forcefully enough. CONSPIRACY is a project which seems to have potential, but right now, Reincarnated still seems a bit crude to me.
Last thing to mention is the production, which is quite remarkable for a rather unknown project!