review by: Roberto Martinelli

And it's finally here: the official debut of a project that for some in the know has been a favorite for years. And it's a double CD! Jesus, it may well have been a triple, quadruple CD (or why not go for a Merzbox-like 15 CD set that comes in a CD Case Logic book with t-shirt?). The output by this unstoppable black metal project now stands at 15 albums and shows no sign of ever slowing down.

The tracks on this double album - whose first CD is entitled "Schadenfreude," (a single word unique to the German language that means "to laugh at someone's pain") and whose second CD is entitled "Krankheit" (another German word meaning "disease") - are culled from the first 13 Leviathan disks. So instead of telling you about the album itself in detail, please browse the reviews that have been written about specific Leviathan albums in the annals of Maelstrom.

As an overview, Verräter (literally, "traitor") offers an excellent first taste into what Leviathan has to offer, albeit one in which the project's faster songs are largely absent. On the downside, since the tracks have been pulled from the entire scope of Leviathan's career, including the early tapes on which sole member Wrest was still figuring out how to mix stuff on his (then) 4-track, the sound levels can vary drastically, even despite the tracks being mastered in an attempt to make the levels even. Luckily, the earlier songs are largely grouped together on disk two, so you won't be adjusting your volume controls very much at all. You also get a very finely packaged album. A definite must buy for any black metal fan.