Maximum Metal Rating Legend
5 Excellent - Masterpiece. A classic.
4.5-4 Great - Almost perfect records but there's probably a lacking.
3.5 Good - Most of the record is good, but there may be some filler.
3 Average - Some good songs, some bad ones at about a half/half ratio.
2.5-2 Fair - Worth a listen, but best obtained by collectors.
1.5-1 Bad - Major problems with music, lyrics, production, etc.
0 Terrible - Waste of your life and time.

Note: Reviews are graded from 0-5, anything higher or not showing is from our old style. Scores, however, do not reveal the important features. The written review that accompanies the ratings is the best source of information regarding the music on our site. Reviewing is opinionated, not a qualitative science, so scores are personal to the reviewer and could reflect anything from being technically brilliant to gloriously cheesy fun.

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The best way to determine how much you may like certain music is to listen to it yourself.
Band
Craft
Title
Fuck the Universe
Type
LP/EP
Company
Southern Lord
YOR
2005
Style
Black
3/30/2006 - Review by: Etiam
Craft - Fuck the Universe - 2005 - Carnal Records / Southern Lord

Track Listing
1. Earth A Raging Blaze
2. Thorns In The Planet's Side
3. Fuck The Universe
4. Assassin 333
5. Demonspeed
6. Terni Exustæ: Queen Reaper
7. Xenophobia
8. The Suffering of Others
9. Destroy All
10. According To Him
11. Principium Anguis
I have read some negative commentary on Craft stating that the band is not ‘true black metal’, and I will not disagree with that statement. However, none of the bands that play this mid-paced, groove-heavy subgenre of black metal are ‘true’. I do not believe that they try to be. Craft, while certainly in philosophical alignment with the darkest depths of the black metal abyss, they communicate their message of misanthropy and Satanic worship through channels other than relentless lo-fi monotony, which is much appreciated. I tell you now, this new Craft album, though dubiously titled ‘Fuck the Universe’, is as good a recording as they have done, and better than most any other band who play a similar style.

The swaggering bravado (communicated through their photo shoots and choice of album title) that this record implies unsettled me before its release and made me wary of a potential sell-out bomb, but Craft have done nothing of the sort. I hesitate to say that this is the album Craft was always meant to make, for I would not like to slight the very meritorious ‘Terror Propaganda’, but everything just seems to fall into place here. Though some individual songs are not as stand-out as those on ‘Terror Propaganda’, ‘Fuck the Universe’ conveys more coherence, and is a more organized recording.

The most important factor in Craft’s success is not just their atypical approach to their music. Rather, it is their acute sense of timing. Timing with a tremolo hammer-on-off combo, timing with a bend, timing with a guitar solo, even. The solo I refer to appears in the song ‘According To Him’, and was rather surprising, despite my prior knowledge of Craft and their atypical ways, but it slipped into the recording so seamlessly that I could not imagine the song without it. Listening to other tracks such as ‘Destroy All’, I am wondering if Craft’s members grew up on as much Boris and The Melvins as they did Darkthrone and Thorns.

Craft seems to be playing in a perpetually flat key, giving their songs an agitated feel. This, combined with their no-frills approach to the album (blasting right out the gate, the first track almost sounds as if the band started playing before the recording began) make for a refreshing and enjoyable record. Some might complain that this record is not as gritty or nefarious as previous releases, but black metal has never been a genre too accepting of progression within an individual band’s career. With ‘Fuck the Universe’, a name I still don’t like but have come to accept, Craft prove that, yes, black metal can be both fun and misanthropic, and they defy you to prove them otherwise.


--Etiam 03.12.06
  • 1 :REVIEW COUNT
    4 :AVE RATING

ALL REVIEWS FOR: CRAFT
TITLE
DOR
COMPANY
REVIEWER DATE MADE RATING
Fuck the Universe
2005
Southern Lord
Etiam3/30/2006
4

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