Germany’s Nargaroth has always been one of my favorites. Only composed by Kanwulf, and with the cooperation of some great guest musicians in some of his albums, Nargaroth has delivered some of excellent Black Metal albums.

In the previous Nargaroth full-length, Geliebte des Regens (Beloved of the Rain in German), we found a more ambient, atmospheric Nargaroth, but in this release Kanwulf has decided to go back to the roots and to do a more raw, and primitive sounding album. This doesn’t have to be necessarily bad; raw, old-school Black Metal can be great (Darktrhrone), but in this case I must say Kanwulf didn't suceed.

Many times during the album I found myself listening to generic, boring Black Metal, and honestly I was expecting something way better by Kanwulf.

The album opens with a rather tasteless, immature intro, with some feedback and guitar noise with a sexual dialogue and some growls. After the intro, Be Dead or Satanic begins; this song could easily describe what happens throughout the majority of the album; average tremolo picking riffs all the way; although the album features some great riffs, like the riffing that starts halfway through Black and Blasphemic Death Metal, most of them are bland and extremely un-original. Accompanying the guitars we find some keyboard stuff in some songs, but nothing special. The only exceptions to the previous mentioned formula are Thinking below the Ocean and The Dark Side of the Moon, which are ambient instrumentals; the first one is done with guitar and the second one with keyboard; I guess that the intention is to offer a kind of peaceful interlude to the otherwise monotonous aggressive music in the album. The other different song is the closing one, Bring my Harvest Home, which is a nice mid paced song, but then again, nothing special.

All the vocals and the instruments where handled by Kanwulf in this release, even the drums which where usually played by session musicians in the majority of the recent Nargaroth albums; and I must say he plays everything quite well. As for the production, it's raw and simple, as well as the music, so I guess it fits it.

Prosatanica Shooting Angels is far from being a horrible album; but it’s definitely the weakest release by this German Black Metal potency. If you’re Nargaroth obsessed, like Kanwulf would say in one of his greatest albums, go buy it, you’ll probably enjoy it, but don’t expect anything special; otherwise don't waste you're money here, there are much better Black Metal releases this year.

Kanwulf is definitely and excellent Black Metal artist, but even the greatest of the great can misstep sometimes; let us hope that his next album shows what he is really capable of doing. If you wish to see the true capacity of this excellent artist start with Herbestleyd or Black Metal ist Krieg; two excellent Black Metal albums.