As if we haven’t had enough blasphemy from recent Profanatica, Havohej are back after a long silence of 10 years between albums as well. The first album from Paul Ledney’s solo project ‘Dethrone The Son Of God’ is considered a bit of a classic now. Released way back in 1993 via Candlelight Records the striking cover art of its Jehovah hating protagonist standing in a field of grass with blood all over his face is a striking image and one many people into black metal as it emerged as an art form, no doubt remember fondly. And it must be said who can forget song titles such as ‘Fucking Of Sacred Assholes? Looking at the track list on Table Of Uncreation one can almost breath a sigh of relief, it all looks kind of normal and non-offensive at first glance. I’m sure once you get down to the lyrics it’s a different case but perhaps Profanatica have left Ledney all Blasphemed out.
So how does Havohej differ from Profanatica, is probably the first question on anyone who was wondering and the simple answer is a fair bit. Havohej still have a raw and primitive mind-set about things but not in quite such a hammer-smash, destroy, blunt force trauma kind of way. Things are more subtle here over this half an hour album but on the whole, it is pretty much coated with a foul bass and bowel evacuating rumble that really does leave you with an unpleasant smell in your pants. Longest and opening number ‘God of All Constellation’ starts with some almost ambient swirling patterns and a drum beat gradually increasing in volume and said huge rumble rolling out. Listening to it now with first smoke of the day it really does leave you clutching your cheeks together. Then there’s the hellish fetid vocal sermon growling lowly away over the doom-laden ceremony that is sickly churned forth. You couldn’t call this conventional black metal in any shape or form musically although ideologically it strikes as completely on point and it’s not pleasant listening in the slightest. There is some short smashing attacks such as ‘Holy Blood, Holy Grail’ honing in at just over a minute long and upping the tempo and aggression. The drum sound from percussionist Ledney is mighty and really well honed in the production, rolling and rumbling out on numbers such as ‘The Black King’ all the time with the low end slowly thundering in the background and attempting to hit the brown note. Gargling vocals and cymbal chimes are present and the whole atmosphere is claustrophobic and if other senses are opened by this one can almost smell sulphur in all its rancid, eggy-stenched glory.
After falling down into a dripping-faeces pit we enter the catacomb of the Seven Jinn, uncork the bottle and unleash pure malevolence in the form of an utterly ghastly (in all the right ways) piece of music. This is one of the stand out numbers and a perfect example of musical vileness, complete with demons swirling in the ether and huge drum blasts urging them through the hellish portal. Contagion spreads with slothful intent through rasped and whispered vocals, noise and slow drum thumping, beating out a demonic mantra and leaving you feeling numbed and to a certain extent monged out. Then suddenly thwack as the title track literally dissolves into ‘All Time In Now’ there’s a catastrophic drum beat startling you out of reverie and if you had been holding things in they will almost certainly come tumbling out in surprise now. With the final number ‘Fatir’ throwing the gates wide open and giving a brutal ending to proceedings this may well be short in the suffering but it’s ultimately a nasty and hateful piece of work. Well would we really have expected anything else?
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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