In 2002, Black Witchery were just beginning to establish themselves in the underground. Likewise, NWN had just completed its first two vinyl LP releases (Blasphemy’s Live Ritual and Morbosidad’s debut) and was still in its embryonic stages.

It was in this context that NWN! released the vinyl version of Desecration of the Holy Kingdom. (licensed from Full Moon, the vinyl version was conceived and executed by NWN!)

At the time, DOTHK represented the most morbid necromantic invocation of Blasphemy and Sarcofago and others like them that had yet been summoned forth. No other band fully captured these bands’ intense and ritualistic sound with the same violence and dedication to chaos. And yet, while the influence of these bands is undoubtedly found within their work, B.W. defined their own sound relying upon their mentors merely to establish a stream in which to create their own dark current.

Black Witchery’s sound is furious and focused. The instruments are so carefully connected to one another that the sound is an almost mechanical. And yet the songs are not driven so much by the frenetic riffs and blast beats but by Impurath’s maniacal vocal performance. Black Witchery was not out to emulate the bands by which they were influenced; instead, they embodied the very essence of the genre. As such, Black Witchery helped to usher in what may be convincingly characterized as the second wave of bestial black/death metal. Much like Conqueror and Revenge, B.W. established their own identity while simultaneously paying tribute to their predecessors.

It should be recalled that, at the time DOTHK was released, the underground was not flooded with hundreds of second and third-rate bands playing so called “bestial black death” much as it is today. Indeed, Witchery sought to maintain a tradition that was waning amid the onslaught of “raw black metal” acts overrunning the scene at that time.