CHARNEL WINDS / VERGE: "Two Serpent"

When two basically seminal Finnish black metal serpents of late times appear on the same split or, even better, join their forces to create a collaborative piece of work, it is pretty much bound to be good. Charnel Winds and Verge are the big names here, and anyone following the country's output has most likely heard of both bands, Charnel Winds for their praised 2007 demo and the ambitious full-length Der Teufelsbund, and Verge for their rather long career already during which they've crafted such diamonds as Hatemagic and Sex & Violence.

The minialbum embarks on its brief voyage with the ominous groove of ”Archons” that nods to Charnel Winds' direction both in execution as well as in overall sound that has a certain kind of cleanness to it which reminds me of their debut album. It's not a negative element, rather a professional feature that still retains the necessary roughness. The meandering main riff later breaks into a hypnotizing guitar plucking that then again is pure Verge, as are Wyrmfang's vocals. ”Serpent Tongue” swims in similar, convulsing waters which later incorporate some sweet clean vocal output, a style further explored on the record's highlight track, the epic ”Wingless Dragons” which I find to be pure gold in all possible aspects. ”Godhead” ends the EP with raucous, relentless black metal, a level more traditional in style, which works very well as well, yet it does pale a little in comparison to the earlier tracks.

Lyrically, I'm not sure if there's any strict theme to the whole, but the underlining currents always carry the ideas of destruction and hopelessness along with ascension. While ”Archons” includes lines of extreme 'nihilism' (”No one has the right to practice anything / in the name of anything else / than naught”), ”Serpent Tongue” delivers reverence of Satan, the ”twisted tongue”, the ”evil tongue”. ”Wingless Dragons” depicts people, the mundane humanity that wastes its potential, ”lacking virtue, lacking will / devoid of chance to ascension”, and hence are "too blind to see the inner sun". I believe there's a real-life story to the last track but I'm much unaware of it, but this godhead is given some references to in such lines as ”Every satellite has the right to rebel / to question the motivation of its creation”, I suppose.

With ever-competent music and thought-provoking lyrics, the combination of Charnel Winds and Verge - two bands that clearly fit together due to very similar spirits – works to great extents. The brevity of the running time makes Two Serpents pass fast by, so the music deserves some real attention to be fully digested. Noxifer has painted some detailed, brooding paintings to the booklet which make it even a worthier package. Although the material presented here might not be of such mindblowing level as yours truly regards e.g. Hatemagic, one can't really go wrong with this record either.

4 / 5