Pure Norwegian devil worship here! Endezzma was borne to rotten life by Trondr Nefas of Urgehal (R.I.P) along with Morten Shax. There’s been line-up changes aplenty but somehow the band have managed to soldier on and principally includes live members past and present of acts such as Beastcraft who have a new album on the way themselves, Blood Red Throne, Sarkom and So Much For Nothing. This is only their second full-length since 2012 release Erotik Nekrosis and follows hot on the heels of recent 2 track EP ‘Morbus’ Divina which included the last song Trondr ever wrote ‘Black Tempest.’ No doubt very hungry after such a long wait, it’s no surprise that this goes out all guns blazing.
Drums roll with thundering slow malevolence and dictatorial shouts come out the speakers as the intro piece takes us into things with a real sense of foreboding. The spiky guitars clamour and everything rolls in with a brackish punky groove about them as ‘Malferno’ gets claws in. It swaggers in and one thing that is duly noted straight off is that Shax has a very pronounced and authoritative stamp about his vocal parts. I am reminded a fair bit of Hoest from Taake at some of the protruding bellows that are vomited out of his throat during proceedings. These songs have plenty of restraint about them summoning an evil black thrashing tumult one second along with some spiralling guitar parts as well as doom laden gravid crawls. Lyrics that I have not had the chance to read myself sound as though they are often calling dark gods to this particularly potent black Sabbath (not that one) and witchcraft and devilry abound. The title track starts slowly and limbers up allowing the full effect of those pronounced vocals to come through before it charges off and clatters away on an Evil Dead demon charge through the thick dark woods. The singer sounds like he has become duly possessed in the process and it would be no surprise to find he is summoning things up from the Necronomicon itself. There’s plenty of melody to this dark necromancy though and although head-banging is essential there’s also a real catchiness and individuality about the tracks here as they unfold.
At times there sounds like more than one vocalist involved and on ‘Morbus Divina’ it’s like Shax is having a call and response session with himself as the machinery of the instruments shake, rattle and roll around. However with ‘Sick Kulta Lucifer’ Beastcraft throat-spewer Sorath Northgrove adds his tones to the stygian slow burning black mass of a song. The line “My body is fucking death” kind of sums the vile vibe of this one up, ugh! Surprises keep on coming and there’s even some clean croons and backing gang chants on the slithering ‘Serpent Earth’ and an almost romantic sounding melody break.
There seems to be an absolute swarm of extreme and black metal releases around at the moment and typically Endezzma has waited till now to come back but despite this the strong selection of songs certainly manage to get my attention and stick their heads above the parapet. There’s touches of Satyricon vocally and Emperor musically on closer ‘A Grave So Deep’ and I have to hope that this solid album sees the band getting some shows and playing it live. They certainly have the calibre within their ranks so fingers crossed. Until then this will do nicely!
(8/10 Pete Woods)
Leave a Reply