PROSANCTUS INFERI: "Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitation"

When a Black Funeral guitarist forms another group, I would have expect something piercincly cold industrial black metal again, but that is quite far from the truth in the case of Prosanctus Inferi that delivers some utterly disgusting death metal on their major debut Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitation.

All the thirteen songs are brief, resulting in a less than 26-minute whole, and musically they are utterly disgusting and chaotic, swift pieces of all that is rotten and abominant. The songs seem very incoherent as the drums blast the hell out of everything all the way through and guitars deliver insane lines of discordance that is very hard to grab on. Listening to Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitations throughout is like a dive into a whirlwind in which one loses all control of himself and sucks up everything that this morbid creature compels.

A careful and devoted listener might eventually find Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitations enough catchy, but for a regular listener this will be that very whirlwind. But does that matter in the end? I’d guess that’s one of the points of the album: a totally fucked up feast on crumbling menace that lives for the spirit rather than compositional values.

In spite of the music’s chaotic nature, the production deserves a favorable mention. It’s natural and, in a way, warm, so that although the actual music might be a total mess at times, every second of the album is still pleasure to the ears. Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitations does not blow my mind with ingenuity but is still a worthwile effort to check out of ugly and bestial death / black metal bands appeal to you - basically meaning all kinds of bands that American labels Nuclear War Now! and Hells Headbangers usually convey.

2.5 / 5

WALK THROUGH FIRE: "Furthest from Heaven"

The label Aesthetic Death has been churning out some quality doom metal lately, and Walk Through Fire is another addition to their roster, now delivering fourty minutes of painful, slow sludge / doom metal with some post-metal influences on their second full-length Furthest from Heaven.

Considering the album's title, the aura is fittingly desperate. The self-titled ”Furthest from Heaven” creeps up slowly, starting with slightly atonal and distortionless chords and then building up to the slow metal which consists of just a couple of beats and riffs. ”Through Me They Bleed” continues this with even better ideas in the riff department, as the predecessor may stagnate a little too much during its 12-minute static repetition.

”The Dying Sun” is an interlude of droning synth mats, nothing out of the ordinary really, but an apt moment of peace until ”The Dead Sun”, the true monolith of Furthest from Heaven kicks in. It is chaos meeting desperation in this partially faster song, and here the band has managed to create their most consistent composition in which the unchanging nature of the style bothers the least. The mid-range growls deliver the minimalist lines convincingly, and the riffs capture the emotions the best.

Furthest from Heaven does not really hit any special spots in me. Most of its material is definitely not goose bumps inducing nor totally memorable. But the fact is that the songs are decent at worst and there’s no moments of irritation on any corner of the album - it flows nicely throughout and luckily realizes to stop after the fourth song so that it hasn’t been prolonged to unnecessary extents. I have seen Neurosis and Isis mentioned in regard to this album and I agree that fans of those bands might enjoy what’s on the bleak landscapes of Furthest from Heaven.

2.5 / 5

DRÜNKEN BASTARDS: "Horns of the Wasted"

From the band name to the album title, one might guess the deal right here. Yes, you guessed right: alcohol influenced punky and blackened thrash metal, no more or no less. Not your thing? Proceed no further. Drünken Bastards' second full-length Horns of the Wasted delivers seven tracks and nineteen minutes of d-beats, simple power chord hell, some thrash and speed metal guitar licks and an overall spirit of a bunch of drunk friends having fun worshipping the likes of Barbatos, Abigail and Motörhead.

The actual music, then, certainly doesn’t revel in novel ideas, as can be deduced. There’s very little material on Horns of the Wasted that truly grabs my attention: one of the few might be ”Destroy the Factory (Eat My Fuk)” with its catchy chorus and there are occasional solos dropped in some corners of the album that are quite well delivered metal-to-the-bone twirlings - these raise their heads nicely from the mass of rather generic thrash bludgeoning.

One word of warning if you’re planning to invest in Horns of the Wasted and already have rest of Drünken Bastards’ back catalogue: this album contains no new tracks! They have all appeared previously on either their 2007 debut Posercrusher or on some of their three splits, but at least these are new recordings of them, of course.

Recommending Horns of the Wasted to anyone else than likers of the bands mentioned in the first paragraph is hard, because the mindset of a slightly tongue-in-check release like this will certainly not appeal to those who require a tad more seroiusness from their metal. I am able to see the appeal of some of the ideas here and the sharp production does fit the band well, but I can’t say I would see myself returning to Horns of the Wasted that often - not only because its style doesn’t meet with my usual taste, but because this has been done so many times in the past already - and with better success.

2 / 5

PROFANATICA: "Disgusting Blasphemies Against God"

Although Profanatica has a long history dating back to the very early 90s, the band’s second full-length Disgusting Blasphemies Against God is my introduction to the their music, and a very sweet one it is. The deal here is rather simple: morbid, rotten death / black metal that mocks every possible aspect of Christianity.

Covered in a layer of cavernous bass guitar - which works as the driving force of the record in all its overpowering - the compositions on Disgusting Blasphemies Against God differ little from each other. At times the tempo might be a tad slower and doomier while at times it’s sheer blast beat crushing all the way through, and a song like ”Covered in Black Shit” incorporates some doom bell samples; similar little special features can be spotted from many corners of the album, but they are nothing major. The low-end frequency atmosphere that dominates on the record is probably the best feature of the album whereas the songs themselves might lack all originality. When this muddy menace is combined to the harsh, deathly screams, the result is pretty damn working.

In the end, it’s up to the listener if he’s up for a feast on primitive and uncompromising blasphemy and whether the mere overall sound and atmosphere is enough for enjoyment. I personally really like the filthiness here, and such dominance of crumbling bass guitar isn’t something you hear on many records. Disgusting Blasphemies Against God might not lure for repeated listens on a regular basis, but every now and then this morbidity does invite. I might not have dwelled in a plethora of depictions and details here as I review this title but I think that everything necessary has been said, and everyone knows by now whether these 'disgusting blasphemies against god’ will appeal to him.

3 / 5

INQUISITION: "Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult"

The more time passes by, the more I realize how many bands I have somehow managed to totally miss, bands that have been even essential and foundative in black metal. Inquisition could be mentioned as one of the most important black metal groups from the Americas, so being a newbie to their 1998 major debut Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult until some days ago was admittedly shameful.

Now that I’ve discovered this gem of nineties’ USBM, I am not only happy because I finally know what’s all the fuzz about, but because the actual material here is brilliant. Inquisition seems to have their own thing going on right on their first full-length, which basically means crushing, almost death metalish riffing that meets hazy, dream-like, atmospheric, melancholic chord pluckings. So while the first part of some certain riff kicks ass with pure power, the latter part of that riff suddenly turns into wistful, tear-evoking mysteriousness. These riffs are often repeated a lot and often even without vocals, an evident example being the 9-minute ”Summoned by Ancient Wizards Under a Black Moon” that has a long instrumental section towards its end.

This massive 66-minute whole is based on this definite element in the guitar department, though there are some interesting deviations from the paradigm, like the folkish, lively tunes that appear a couple of times on ”The Initiation”. For one straight listen, Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult might be too much to handle, resulting in boredom due to the quite unchanging nature of the compositions, but when savored in a little smaller portions, the music’s ingenuity starts to shine and I can not name one weak track of any of the ten.

By now I’ve already gotten to the fourth paragraph and there’s still been no mention of the vocals that have been the dividing point between the band’s lovers and haters, and ultimately the most distinctive feature of Inquisition. While some find Dagon’s vocal delivery just laughable, I think the almost robotic, frog-like faint snarling works well in these magical pieces of black metal that predominantly concentrate more on atmosphere than the attitude of who’s the heaviest and sickest sounding throat killer of all.

The production deserves a mention too as, in fact, it’s another big plus in the album’s book. It’s warm and detailed yet has just enough sharpness for the power chord riffage and enough smoothness for the melancholic pluckings. Also, drums are recorded with more than just one microphone so that they have a nice amount of detail present, and no complaints either for the bass guitar that together with drums form the well working rhythmic basis of Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult. 

It might be that at the moment I’m just in a mood of utter Inquisition hype and by next week the album doesn’t sound that special anymore, but right now I’m willing to go as far as handing almost a full score to the record. I’m always hesitant to give this high points for a newly found album, but what the heck, Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult seems like an endurable album that I’ll be listening to in years to come. The right amount of originality in this sort of underground black metal and the terrific atmosphere makes this piece one of my favourites of late.

4.5 / 5

BLACK CRUCIFIXION: "Hope of Retaliation"

A few weeks ago, Black Crucifixion’s music was still an unexplored territory for me, from the earliest and ugliest black metal recordings to Hope of Retaliation, their newest offering after a long silence. While The Fallen One of Flames / Satanic Zeitgeist taught me a lesson on primitive, early Finnish black metal, the cover art that adorns Hope of Retaliation does confuse. Is this some poppy industrial metal, or what exactly?

Not at all, though we’re clearly dealing with a record that doesn’t exactly try to avoid mainstream popularity as the polished, crystal clear production and chorus-based progression of the first track ”Retaliation” nod towards a general metal audience instead of any underground black metal cultism. Hope of Retaliation brings to the game four new songs (of which one is a brief interlude) and five live tracks, so calling this album a brand new full-length seems a little off.

Musically, we’re not entirely away from the band’s earlier material as the whispery, Beherit esque vocals imply. A bunch of blast beats can be spotted from here as well, though for the most part the pace is kept a quite slow levels, and the guitars comprise a lot more melody than before. Thus said, a more proper genre tag for Hope of Retaliation would be dark metal, I guess. The most I’m impressed of the 9-minute ”Bitten by the Long Frosts of Life” that wanders in both brooding and epic landscapes to a great success, and the weakest link of the new songs is definitely ”Night Birds Sing Your Demise” which is a short, droning interlude that doesn’t bring much to the table, except irritation by the fact that it takes one slot of the very few new songs on the album.

The second half of the disc, consisting solely of live tracks, showcases material from the whole career of Black Crucifixion: ”Master Spirit” from The Fallen One of Flames, ”Promethean Gift” and ”Serpent of Your Holy Garden” from Promethean Gift, and ”Where Will You Hide” and ”Winterkill” from Faustian Dream. While on the actual records one can notice the band’s clear evolution from simple black metal to more experimental approach, here the songs fit seamlessly together, forming a good 18-minute whole of its own. Heck, in a way these songs fit together with Hope of Retaliation’s new material as well, so from that perspective you could call this a proper full-length album.

I can’t say that Hope of Retaliation is hundred percent my thing. The dark metalish approach does work and the live takes are solid pieces, but then what? The material isn’t anything out of the ordinary, as the first side of the album is quite basic metal of nowadays and live songs don’t offer much pleasure to anyone but the hardcore fans of the band and those who are new to the band and hence get a compact view into the band’s whole career. These things added to the cover art that I really do not dig makes a record worth of a moderate, goodish score. Would be lovely to hear a true full-length next time, but knowing how slowly Black Crucifixion crafts material, it might take a while.

2.5 / 5

KRATER: "Nocebo"

On Nocebo, Krater’s second full-length, this German horde offers little surprises in its relatively fast black metal that balances between aggressive and melodic approaches. The style is nothing new, especially for a German group, and for the most part Nocebo seems way too familiar, but there are bits and pieces within this 45-minute piece that shine with greatness, making the album a worthwile listen all in all.

At first, Nocebo attacks harshly with blast beats and violent tremolo riffage not unlike Marduk. This is what ”Parasit” and the follow-up ”Ebrietas - Crush the Equilibrium” mostly offer, and while it sounds convincing all in all, there’s a clear lack of memorable songwriting in those songs. The album’s brilliance resides in its middle where the two simply titled songs, ”Aura” and ”-”, appear. While the former is still a fast bleast beat manifest, it incorporates subtle melancholy into the harshness and it works very well. The latter, then, is the true highlight of the album with its grandiose, heart-rending lead melody pattern carried throughout the song. When these songs end, Nocebo returns to the less memorable pummeling of fierce black metal, though ”Zerissen” is still worth mentioning in all its 12-minute length that features some nice atmospheric elements, the last five minutes of it being solely strings & choral.

As can be implied, Nocebo is at times pure pleasure, but too commonly it turns into not-that-interesting tremolo firing and blast beating that has been heard on a plethora of black metal records in the past. Production-wise, the album isn’t either raw nor polished, rather balancing somewhere between, which is good so that it isn’t too lo-fi for high volume speaker use, nor too clean to drive away potential black metal listeners. Consider Nocebo an overall good record that is partially in need of more memorable songs.

3 / 5