"Worship new gods"?? No! If there's one thing I can't stand it's numb-brained New Age cunts. Go choke on a crystal, you tits!
Worship old gods? no, No, NO!! Take it outside godboy, 'cause when you quote the bible is when I load my rifle!
No, the only gods you should worship is The Almighty COVEN!! First of all let me make perfectly clear that this Michigan edition of COVEN has absolutely no connection whatsoever with the "humorous" Seattle thrash-act of "Iron Dick"-infamy with the same name. This haunting and obscure act is so much more deserving of such a powerful band name. OK, so they mix Celtic and Norse themes and graphics in a typically clueless and tacky American manner, but with good intentions, so on behalf of my great great grandfathers, I forgive them. And with music such as this, how could I do otherwise? Before I start churning out the usual endless list of band comparisons, please understand that COVEN sound like no other Metal band that ever existed. All I can refer to as far as references goes are what kind of feelings they project. On a spiritual level they hover a few feet above the centre of a pentagram, with "..Pandemonium"-era CELTIC FROST, LORDS OF THE CRIMSON ALLIANCE, CIRITH UNGOL, "Hammerheart"-era BATHORY and BAUHAUS standing at the end of each point. In one sense they could be hurled into the Doom-niche, but it's only in the opening "Riddle Of Steel" that they ever come close to something CANDLEMASSic/SABBATHic. Apart from that it's their unique brand of, grinding, twangy-yet-thundering leads that are their most conspicuous treat. Songs like "Ruler", "Burial Ground" and the seminal COVEN-in-a-nutshell "Threshold Of The New" are like the tank brigade of the armies of the dead. Totally unstoppable, doomsday-ridden, straight-ahead heavy metal. They have their melodic moments in "General's Eye" and "Jail House", but not in a servile, insipid "Melodic Metal"-manner, for this is clearly not an album out to rub you the right way. The do tangent the early 80's Goth-sound in "Kiss Me With Blood", but the offspring of this unholy union is nothing less that Total Doom.

A tell-tale sign of a highly interesting True Metal Gem is when the music is TOTALLY DEVOID of any good-time rock'n'roll parts, and "Worship New Gods" is about as "Rock"-free as the North Pole. Some dark, cloudy, angst-ridden days you cannot listen to anything else but COVEN.

Listen to this record here. (provided by the Vibrations Of Doom webzine)