This is the debut album from Lvx Haeresis, a Swiss black metal band.
This is ritualistic, occult black metal that takes influence from such bands as Ondskapt, Schammasch, and Funeral Mist to craft music that takes the listener on a blackened journey to sights foul and unclean. Continue reading “Lvx Haeresis – Descensŭs Spīrĭtŭs (Review)”
This is the third album from Italian black metal band Obscure Devotion.
Obscure Devotion play sophisticated occult black metal with a mature, yet still fiery approach to extreme music. Continue reading “Obscure Devotion – Ubi Certa Pax Est (Review)”
This is the début album by US Black metal band Sovereign.
With an obscure album cover and an intro track, Gnosis, that is equally enigmatic; the album starts with a winding guitar and an increasing unsettling feeling. I’m not sure what to expect.
So when the first song proper, Orbiting Lunar Curse, begins, it’s almost relieving to be confronted with recognisable Black Metal, albeit played with passion and obvious talent.
Subtle mysterious melodies are deftly weaved into the tapestry of dark malevolence that Sovereign spin. This is a band who are very good at what they do.
Their Black Metal is richly realised and not limited to just one feeling or aura. They play music with depth and even incorporate into their sound that rarest of beasts – the Black Metal guitar solo.
The music has an almost physical presence. Guitar riffs and occult rhythms are unleashed with the confidence of master craftspeople.
An organic production gives Sovereign a very enticing sound and all of the songs are sinuous and slippery with reptilian heat.
Nailing Shut the Sacrosanct Orifice combines elements of Deathspell Omega, Marduk and Ondskapt to create an engaging album that fills me with a sense of Blackened grandeur.
I’ve encountered a lot of really good Black Metal recently and Sovereign definitely strike me as one of the best. Have a listen and see what you think.
Thy Flesh are a Black Metal band from Greece who play a particularly Daemonic brand of Blackened darkness.
The songs have a ritualistic quality to them in addition to the usual razor sharp guitar lines that pepper a release like this.
The vocals are savage and vomit their word-made-shadow out into reality from places unknown.
Frozen and obscure melodies strike from these barren hymns of ice and lash out at the listener from behind barricades of pounding war drums. They speak of eerie atmospheres and unearthly longings, voiced in the language of Black Metal and oncoming apocalypse. Perhaps Thy Flesh herald something long forgotten, something returning to exact payment for a disturbed slumber that should have gone undisrupted.
Mixing elements of Dissection and Ondskapt, Thy Flesh have crafted an expertly delivered offering of occult Black Metal that more than hits the spot. The band have enough instant appeal to satisfy but have sufficient depth to their compositions to allow digestion over time to improve satiety even more.
Well played and decently written; this is a worthy addition to the genre and a quality début for the band. You can feel the darkness approaching, heralded by a storm of knives.
Wonderbox Metal 