Gloucestershire based UKBM band Shadowflag are new to me although they have released two independent albums prior to this one and seem to be playing some pretty good shows including the upcoming Carpathian Alliance Festival in The Ukraine and The Blackwood Gathering in The Lake District. Shadowflag play what is described as poetic black metal and apparently their last album ‘The White Grave’ was inspired by stories from abandoned street children. ‘The Delusion Machine’ looks upon life and the stance that it is “terrifyingly empty and without purpose,” science fiction or worryingly accurate fact?
The intro does kind of put us in a cold robotic future dystopia and then turmoil is unleashed with fast and furious strumming guitar work as we plough into ‘The Beasts That Perish.’ The riffing is dextrous and weaves away with solid melody behind it. I have not heard of any of the band members before and according to Metal Archives this is their sole endeavour. However Anil Carrier who I am assuming is a session drummer and from many a band such as Binah, Towers Of Flesh and No More Room In Hell batters out one hell of a solid and furious backbone. JJ Flames provides hellish throaty vocals and roars away and I am really getting into this and then… Well I guess it’s something about the eccentricity and theatricality found within British black metal but we get a spot of croaked out spoken word goblin vocals (for want of a better description). Sure it provides a narrative voice for things but strikes as really hammy and quickly takes the impact away from the music. After hearing it I have to admit the good intentions and the all-important seriousness has been totally diminished and parody and gimmick is what I find myself focusing on rather than proper “grown up” black metal which I had first thought I was getting here. Harsh, maybe but also honest and it’s a trick Shadowflag utilise several times through the course of the album, including on the bulk of a particularly long song which goes nowhere and really strikes as filler.
However I can still enjoy the album on a different level, one that’s played well and is engaging, one that’s enjoyable rather than grim and one that gets its chops on and tells a story albeit one projected in a bit of a juvenile, fantasy-land sense. I can imagine this being great “fun” live too and getting a crowd pumped up even on first encounter as songs like ‘Skyscraper’ are full of bravado, grit and steel musically even if it does sound like an Orc is handling the vocals at times. The PR blurb is a bit of an affront here too claiming this is music for fans of Satyricon, Imperium Dekadenz & Blut Aus Nord which is what got me eagerly grabbing it in the first place. Fans of Hecate Enthroned, Eibon La Furies and Old Corpse Road would have been a much more honest way of presenting what we have here. ‘
So a bit of a mixed bag really, there’s plenty to enjoy, if that’s what you are looking for from your black metal fix but those after something a bit more serious, especially from abroad will be quick to dismiss this as just another atypical example of British Black Metal exhibitionism.
(6.5/10 Pete Woods)
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