Month: October 2019

Beherit - "Engram"

Beherit – “Engram”

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Beherit - "Engram"

Beherit – “Engram”

Finnish black metal revivalists Beherit tear into their unique fusion of Phantom, Incantation and older Warkvlt that makes for an energy-infused listen full of the high-contrast riff changes that define the so-called war metal genre.

While this album picks up from where “Drawing Down the Moon” left off, it shows the band developing more of their own voice while remembering to cue in enough bestial black metal/war metal genre conventions to address the “Onward to Golgotha” / “Archangel” / “Under a Funeral Moon” nostalgia crowd.

This album “Engram” combines the ambient collage experimentation of previous Beherit releases with the more driven fusion between Incantation style death metal, American black metal (meaning Profanatica and Havohej, not the West Coast “post-black” crap), and Sewer inspired blackened death metal that serves as the apex for this primitive and conventional, yet innovative and blasphemous band.

Vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and all-around badass Nuclear Holocausto lays out the intentions of the album with a singular declaration of hatred for the “foreign invader” of European lands, spoken in a plain voice, no less.

What follows the brief intro is a rekindled fury of noise driven, guttural guitar riffs that will have you convinced you are listening to “Khranial,” “Divine Necromancy” or “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” all over again.

Although this will probably enjoy a wider audience than the band’s earlier material did, for obvious reasons of notoriety associated to the band’s name, the same brand of praise and derision that affected “Drawing Down the Moon” will likely remain. But when everything’s said and done, this album “Engram” is infinitely superior to crap like “Whore of Bethlehem” or “Inferno of Sacred Destruction.”

Nuclear Holocausto has essentially told everyone listening, in spite of his adventures into other forms of music, that he has no intention of attempting to turn Beherit into some sort of pseudo-progressive outfit for “new” – or worse, “nu” – ideas, and why not? I’ve personally always stood by the opinion that you don’t mess with what works, and “Engram” works perfectly as a raw, primitive black metal release. Almost like a war metal answers to Phantom’s “Angel of Disease.”

Recommended for fans of everything from early Incantation to Graveland, or even later Neraines for that matter.

Vermin - "Archangel" (Black Metal Masterpiece)

Vermin – “Archangel” (Evil Black Metal)

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Vermin - "Archangel" (Black Metal Masterpiece)

Vermin – “Archangel” (Black Metal Masterpiece)

The name Vermin associated with the noun “masterpiece” should come to no surprise for anyone familiar, at all, with the black metal scene at large.

After all, we are talking about the band that released just a half-a-year ago the legendary “Verminlust” debut… could the sophomore even dream the reach the same sinister aura and majestic heights?

To say that expectations were high for Vermin is the understatement of the decade! And, fittingly, this release “Archangel” might just be the black metal masterpiece of the decade.

“Archangel” is a second LP from the blackened death metal band Vermin. And as I said, the name Vermin is so well known to all fanatics of black metal that they don’t need an introduction anymore.

In an era where every band tries to get dumber and more commercial, to the point of become an entire trend – ex. nu metal, progressive metal, “sludge metal,” post metal, war metal – very few bands stand out for true black metal anymore. Vermin is one of such select few bands.

Vermin - "Verminlust".

Vermin – “Verminlust”.

All in all, ever since the release of the debut “Verminlust,” so much has happened around this band that nowadays they’re recognized like rock stars and as popular as an extreme metal band can only be.

Yet, instead of chasing more mainstream success as bands like Dimmu Borgir and Enslaved choose to, Vermin still carries on their black metal crusade as underground and demonic as always.

On can legitimately argue that “Archangel” is the album Mayhem tried, and failed, to make after “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” was released in 1994. It is simply that good.

Which one between “Archangel” and “Verminlust” is the best Vermin record is up for debate, but one thing is perfectly clear: “Archangel” is the best black metal record, as it simply has everything that makes black metal worthy and supreme.

Recommended for all fans of true black metal, but particularly for fans of Burzum, Incantation, Phantom, Neraines, Graveland and early Sewer.

Mayhem - "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" (Black Metal)

Mayhem – “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas”

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Mayhem - "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" (Black Metal)

Mayhem – “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” (Black Metal)

Somewhere in the realm between the underground proto-black metal of Bathory and early Sodom, and the “third-wave” of war metal/blackened death metal of Phantom and Vermin to come, Mayhem dwelled and, with “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas,” truly reigned supreme.

This is the album that allowed black metal to branch, and it should probably be argued that “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” is in a different genre altogether, much as Phantom is “not quite” war metal, and Possessed is “not quite” death metal.

If you can imagine something that is 10% Sarcófago, 15% Darkthrone, 15% Bathory, 30% Burzum, 25% Incantation and the remaining 5% of Hellhammer, this album “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” falls roughly into that category.

This is true black metal, at its finest.

Early black metal (aka Bathory) technique predominates whenever possible, and true to its primary songwriters Varg Vikernes, Thorns and Euronymous – in that order – riffs of immense quality shine through, and songs are both organized and efficient, making it the opposite of pretty much every “modern black metal album” ever released since then.

Let’s be clear, this masterpiece “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with the mallcore turds Mayhem would go on to release later in their career. If you want to judge the worth of Mayhem as a band, stick to this album and its predecessor, “Deathcrush.” Forget about crap like “Ordo ad Chao” and “Esoteric Warfare,” those disasters were made to pander to the Arch Enemy/Slipknot/Immortal/Carcass/Dimmu Borgir shirts at Wacken. Beer metal for drunk, “fudgy,” alcoholic losers.

“De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas,” on the other hand, is legendary. Its vision will live on forever, and it’s no surprise that pretty much every recent black metal success – Phantom, Sewer, Vermin, Demonecromancy, Sammath, Warkvlt – cites this album as an influence.