Maybe it’s Finland’s precarious position in the geopolitical landscape; maybe it’s the extreme latitude and near perpetual gloom at certain times of the year; or maybe it’s just the weather. Whatever it might be, there’s something that propels Finnish black metal into a league of its own where absolute darkness is concerned and means even the more accessible bands, from their wayward approach to production, aesthetics and generally not giving a frozen pig’s arse about what the rest of the world thinks and does, feels like they’re pedalling their wares only for an underground consisting of a few local deviants. It also means I’m not really that surprised when a random release from a band that I’m only vaguely familiar with like IC Rex can be very often impressive and, at other times, simply jaw dropping.
Like fellow countrymen Sargeist, Tunrida and Horna manages to sound like pure Finland – sharp-edged black metal with its middle finger raised to the masses, but which at the same time embraces melody in its own bedroom-production-values kind of way that then transcends to sublime heights. The fact IC Rex – led by the occult-obsessed Artifex IC – is still releasing material is a little surprising after threatening a few years ago to embark on a “process of transformation and renewal” and had no plans to release any new material. Well, if you didn’t know it already, the dark gods work in mysterious ways and this second phase of the outfit’s artistic career began back in 2015 with a split with that other excellent example of Finnish black metal Saturnian Mist. Now it’s back with full length Tulen Jumalat – ‘Gods of Fire’ – a mystical miasma, in the band’s own appropriate description, which celebrates ancient gods from the skillful Ilmarinen, Heimdall the Norse guardian of the rainbow bridge Bifrost, Prometheus and, how could we forget him, Lucifer. And it certainly feel like whatever sacred oils and lubricants Artifex has been anointing himself with has had the desired effect.
Tulen Jumalat combines classic black metal with tumultuous symphonics in an unstoppable cacophony of rapturous keyboards and buzzing riffs. The whole swirling miasma has more than a whiff of black metal of the Greek variety – the intro starting as it does with big keys, big drums and a powerful, energetic vibe. What follows is at times glorious and at others wilfully precarious as the soaring lead guitars defy the murky gravity and disorder amongst the rhythm section. Even the keyboards at times feel like they might become infected by the disarray – wavering as they do at the beginning of Heimdall like some paled version of Virgin Steele. But the mighty tremolo riffs fire up the soul of the sound and energise tracks like Melek-Taus (a morally ambiguous deity, a sort of partially reformed fallen angel, worshiped by the Yezidi, originally from Kurdish Iran – who are, guess what, widely persecuted). It’s a huge track – one of the best on the album – and sure to drag anyone in who is destined to fall for Artifex’s very obvious musical charms.
The track Lucifer is one of the least impressive tracks, perhaps proving, yes, I’m going to say it, that the devil himself doesn’t always have the best tunes. And, besides, there is a lot of competition here. The standout track, Prometheus, is a killer – starting at a grinding mid-pace and then triggering some serious and typically esoteric black metal fireworks, aided by not one but two towering female vocalists who take the tracks peaks to another spiritual level altogether. There’s very little more that needs to be said after that even though Artifex still has a few things up his sleeve for the rest of the album. Tulen Jumalat is a mix of beguiling simplicity, repetition and excruciatingly calculated arrangements that create yet another powerful beacon in the twilight darkness of Finnish black metal. An album I’ll be returning to for some time to come.
(8.5/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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