Discordant sombreness fills the air. So starts this EP from Spanish black metal band Sheidim. From this comes the ferocious fire of “A Dying Sun”, with a distinct thrash element fuelling the flames. An old school guitar line, more sinister instrumentals and voices, and a tempo which moves up and down, making sure we can never be comfortable, adds character to this complex monstrosity. “Underneath” makes similar devilish progress, blasting everything out of the way but with an imperious quality. The atmosphere recalls Watain, Dissection and Tsjuder.
I cannot fault the intensity of this 27 minute work. Fire, violence and atrocity seem to be the bywords here. The tempo control is good. “Wings of the Reaper” starts ominously before cranking up. What I heard was a series of heavy musical movements, often overlapping with other movements. But it’s all heavy going, deliberately of course, but for me it’s more on a par with a violent rant than continuous pieces of black metal music. The best part of “Wings of the Reaper” was its grainy end, which is fleeting as we return to the customary thrashing death blackness of “Sister of Sleep”. Thankfully, there’s a sweeping section of chaos on the horizon, and the album closes with a magnificent and majestic guitar piece. It’s a pity that Sheidim didn’t introduce more of these elements earlier to give “Infamata” more flavour.
This work is technically fine but there were only glimpses of something new and interesting in it. I don’t see myself listening to this again as there’s plenty of other violently atmospheric metal out there.
(6/10 Andrew Doherty)
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