Esoctrilihum – Consecration of the Spiritüs Flesh (Review)

This is the seventh album from French solo black metal act Esoctrilihum.

I enjoyed 2018’s Pandaemorthium (Forbidden Formulas to Awaken the Blind Sovereigns of Nothingness), and then enjoyed even more 2021’s Dy’th Requiem for the Serpent Telepath. Has this upward trajectory of enjoyment continued with Consecration of the Spiritüs Flesh?

The short answer is…yes, but in a different way. Why? Because Consecration of the Spiritüs Flesh is somewhat of a different beast with a different focus than its predecessors, and my enjoyment of it depends on what kind of music I feel like. If I want music that’s so abrasive and scathing that it leaves deep, weeping scars, then this is definitely the album for that.

Consecration of the Spiritüs Flesh takes the most destructive and violent aspects of Esoctrilihum and channels them into 42 minutes of vicious music. The album is considerably shorter than the two previous releases, indicating the increased intensity levels. These new songs are lethal and deadly.

The songs are apocalyptic avatars of the end of days, ushering in catastrophe and darkness. Raw and savage, the artist behind the band is not holding back with these new songs. The aggression levels have been turned up significantly. Each track is murderously harsh, largely taking an underground black metal approach to both style and substance. Snatches of death metal brutality enhance the music too, all within a hateful black metal framework.

The more unusual atmospheric, idiosyncratic, and eccentric elements that you’d expect on an Esoctrilihum release are still made use of, and select melodies slice through the songs, drawing blood and bringing with them brief streaks of arterial colour. However, these simply enhance the darkness and nihilistic tendencies of the rest of the material. The atmospheric and melodic components don’t exist on their own merits as distinct pathways in a multifaceted framework like they usually do. No, here they exist at the sufferance of the music’s hyperaggressive heart, and serve only its bleak will.

The latest release from Esoctrilihum is devastatingly harsh and aggressive, with raw emotion and violent despair written all over it in blood. If you’re a fan of underground black metal and want something that’s mercilessly aggressive, yet still has its own individual personality, then Consecration of the Spiritüs Flesh is definitely for you.

Very highly recommended.