So what gets your goat the most? Is it po-faced black metal bands who serve their Lord Master Satan with true dedication and are adherents of the much revered left hand path of never mentioned shubanagadingdong cult, or those who take the whole thing with a bit of humour and irreverence and mock it all a bit? Well nope, Christian black metal bands are the biggest joke of them all obviously but I was well aware that Norwegian band Endezzma with members past and present of Vulture Lord, Urgehal (Trondr Nefas RIP) , So Much For Nothing, Asmegin and Bloodthorn, were not of that persuasion. Whilst watching the video for opening cut of this debut album I simply couldn’t take them too seriously. ‘Junkyard Oblivion’ opens with a Faustian decree and is full of bondage, boobs, blood, ball gags and other such beastly things that are going to make your black mass, swingers party go off like a rocket. Oh as the band play live there’s a lot of flames and a goats head on the front of the kit, seriously what more do you need?? It is impossible not to take in Morten Shaxs vocal stance, let’s just say it is very prominent especially when he gravelly raps out such gems as “Come on you fuckers, welcome to my mayhem.” Add pulverising blast beats, seething guitars and a gnarly grit and determination to things this is a song and video (along with some interesting modelling choices) that you are not going to forget in a hurry.
I almost wish they had the budget to film the rest of the seven songs but we are left with just the music now. A black n’ roll vibe flows through ‘Enigma Of The Sullen’ it’s all a bit Immortal and the singer does declare himself as the ‘goat of the old school.’ There is a surprise though and this is the sudden appearance of some retro keyboards which work nicely and take the music into slightly different territory. Some spoken words are whispered out and there’s a cheesy guitar line here, nope still not really taking this seriously but I am enjoying it! Going into a bit of a progressive and psychedelic flourish there is more to this than one may have first anticipated. Screams of “fire” and “chaos” do bring it back to basics so no worries if that is what you are looking for. Witchy and wispy keyboards take us into ‘Against Them All’ and there is a bit of a recent, rollocking Satyricon feel to it. The shorter track length does it no harm either giving this one more of an immediacy that sticks in. I am guessing ‘Swansong Of A Giant’ may well be dedicated to Trondr, starting off slowly it draws you in before galloping off with a yell of “whoooooa get on your necro horses” well I’m pretty sure that’s what was said! Gold, pure lyrical gold!
There is a bit of a let down on the up front side of things and a couple of songs are a bit too gloomy for their own good if you are still smirking from the earlier ones. It does make things all that more serious though so maybe that’s a good thing. We go off towards the end and the shortest number Soulcleansing finalises this 40 minute bombast. Grooving out with strong keyboard melody and some classic riffs and rasps it does end with a suitable flourish but still leaves me in two minds. I was not blown away by this but certainly far from disliked it. Hopefully there won’t be any comments stating, “how dare you not take our art seriously,” left here but I simply couldn’t do so 100%. Still like that Galloping Blasphemy album from Satan’s Wrath, it ultimately delivered the goods and left a smile on my face.
(6.5/10 Pete Woods)
Leave a Reply