A quick perusal of the ever-trusty Metal Archives suggests that Daniel Cichos (a.k.a. Avenger a.k.a. Mr Front Beast) is a busy boy indeed. As well as the sole protagonist behind this prolific entity (which has 12 splits, 6 EPs and 2 full-length albums to date), he is also active in no less than eleven other outfits, several of these such as Terrorazer, Szarlem and Hekate also being one-man affairs. One has to wonder where on earth he finds the time and energy for all of this??? I can barely summon the strength to get out of bed some days, never mind maintain an extreme metal band for each day of the week (two for the weekend) – the man’s life must literally consist of eating, sleeping, riffing and hating.
Nevertheless, find that energy he does and it would appear that Cichos’ latest outpouring of blasphemic bile demonstrates that his commitment to the dark arts continues in an unwavering fashion. ‘Demon Ways of Sorcery’ is a lo-fi, organic slab of blackened metal that harks back to the late-80s sound of proto-black obscurity – the booming drums and echoing vocals bring Tormentor’s ‘Anno Domini’ immediately to mind. There are also elements that nod towards some of today’s more quirky acts. The remarkably low-gain distortion and neo-classical licks on ‘Bearer of Satans’s Flame’ are straight out of the Peste Noire drawer for example whilst the eerie breakdown of bass and echoing guitar leads during ‘Heathen Night’ demonstrate a sense of subtlety beyond the immediate atavism of the clattering assault. There are even touches of Belgian loons Lugubrum at points.
Cichos’s vocals are great, too. A demented, delay-soaked shriek, it lends a real sense of intent to proceedings. Which, it saddens me to say, this record needs more often than not. For all the more intriguing flourishes outlined above, there’s a lot of stodge here – ‘Filling Skulls with Angel’s Blood’ is complete filler, four minutes of clumsy blackthrash, whilst ‘Broken Seal of White Light’ struggles to muster anything memorable throughout its seven-minute duration.
Yes, it is rather flabby stuff – even the aforementioned tracks have a habit of dwelling for too long on passages of uninteresting riffing that (once the appeal of the organic sound and pleasingly chaotic drumming wears off) causes the attention to seriously wander. That the last track ‘Inverted Bloody Cross’ does nothing to indicate any sense of climax to this record and instead peters rather meekly to a close underlines the issues here.
Perhaps Avenger IS spreading himself a little thin after all – there’s a few promising ideas here and the sound is great, however what good moments there are on this record are spread like a too-small knob of butter across the stale toast of some seriously by-the-numbers material. With a touch more self-editing, Front Beast could bring something genuinely inspired to the table but as it stands, ‘Demon Ways of Sorcery’ is rather under-seasoned.
(5.5/10 Frank Allain)
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