Like the accompanying Fatalism from label Eternal Death this came nicely packaged in a clamshell case housing the music on both 3” disc and cassette. Here similarities pretty much end as this was a very different beast than the involving and intriguing stance of its label mates. You pretty much can guess what you are getting from this just looking at the grimy cover art. The band are a duo who apparently have just formed, comprising of vocalist Gravedog and instrumentalist Draak also of Unholy Goatfucker (yep really, that’s a name!). They may well hail from San Fran but there is none of that lying around sunbathing shit here, this is necro as fuck and owes allegiance to all that is grim and frostbitten from the primeval Scando scene.
Digging in with ‘No Real Reason’ the abject nihilism and misanthropy is wrought out through spiky three chord riffing and gloriously wretched vocal rasps sounding like a parrot having its neck wrung. There’s little finesse but there is a melody of sorts as this cuts like wire and bustles away with a thudding volley of programmed drum beats. It’s hardly subtle stuff and nothing that you will probably not have heard before if this is the sort of fetid sewer you have been submerging yourself in for the last couple of decades. You can no doubt blame Darkthrone for this if you are looking for a scapegoat or you can bang your head away to the barbed clamour of ‘Zoo With God’ playing a raw as razorblade style of rough and primitive shredding and ever more unhinged necrotic croakings. There is something persuasive about this, it’s far from fresh but then again if you like black metal with a real authenticity to it this is probably just the sort of sound you are hungering for.
It’s best this one is only a short six tracker as a full length album would become too repetitive for its own good and although with a thick sound that punches above many a groups demo weight it is still akin to scraping off layers of skin with sandpaper. The track titles say it all speaking of blasphemy, subjugation and alienation. It’s not music for sheep and the herd mentality and with that it doesn’t strike me as a group trying to jump on any bandwagon. You get the feeling that they live, bleed and die for the art of black metal. Finishing it off with an instrumental you wonder whether the vocalist’s tonsils are haemorrhaging blood after his performance. Authenticity aside the mark can only reflect the rough back to basics sound of just what you are getting here. Tare and share at the link below!
(6.5/10 Pete Woods)
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