If you’re a Satanic black metal band and you’re been churning out furious atmospheres for years, then even artistic creativity doesn’t allow you to experiment with another philosophy or music which would suit “Songs of Praise”. Well don’t worry. Besatt, now on their 8th album in their 15 years, have not done this. Furious satanic atmospheres it is, then.
The ingredients are familiar. Instruments are an alternative form of pile-driver with everything geared to the “tempus apocalypsis”. At no stage is there any let-up so it’s full marks for intensity. Relentless but not entirely unmelodic, blastbeating batterings are the order of the day and night. It’s not new territory. Only the deranged croakings of the vocalist offer something different, but I did detect dark subtleties on “Fallen” to go with the customary sweeping violence and rage. The drummer batters us into submission while the guitars wander menacingly. From the listener’s point of view, it’s like being on the edge of constant machine-gun fire. War is always on the horizon but the hostilities intensify further as the title suggests on the sinister “War Gathering”, a creepy and cold track akin to psychological erosion. The grim and harsh atmosphere continues more in the spirit of obduracy and persistence than originality. “The Prophecy” entails Enthroned-styled preachings as fury rages around the vocalist. I was less possessed, which is what Besatt means, than numb by now. “The Final Battle” then starts with intent and mercilessly presses on. It is steady, creepy and nasty.
This old school black metal work is not original but it’s intense and violent. “Tempus Apocalypsis” achieves its purpose but I can’t say that it absorbed me to the point of being uplifted.
(6/10 Andrew Doherty)
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