I first found myself adrift on The Infernal Sea after a chance meeting years back at Warhorns Festival where these plague wielders and their stoic Agents of Satan dragged me down under the waves with their compelling undertow. Stagecraft aside, I found their sophomore album The Great Mortality a fine, solid, dense death tinged affair but where the power and cunning hold of their live appearances was missed.

It has been, what, five years? Yeah. Five years with really just the ‘Agents Of Satan’ single and their by now mesmerising live shows to go on. But now in league with Apocalyptic Witchcraft, one of the finest marks of black metal quality I know, we get Negotium Crucis.

So what business do they have with the cross….?

‘Destruction Of Shum’ bursts upon you with the tempestuous riffing you know; blasting, slightly death tinged black metal but immediately there is something else. This absolutely rages. This has so much energy and malevolent life I feel it peeling back my lips into a rictus grin. As a slightly slower part is reached, a slightly oceanic feel washes through the clean vocals, the tidal pull they do so well live in full effect.

How to start an album indeed….

‘Befallen Order’ though is perhaps where this album steps from the storm shadows to unveil its true nature. The riff rips, but the pitch-black melody is just gorgeous. It rises and falls, a touch of Sargeist in its folds, but the riff itself. Oh Satan. The band is tight as Hell, but the confidence they have has revealed something else. They have loosened their hold perfectly, letting the energy just flow forth. The storm ridden sound is given its head and what bursts from the guitars is a far more black punk edge, a feral force that careers along, almost touching that sweet black ‘n’ roll pivot but beautifully whipping past it and back into the headlong black metal riffing. This is the sound I saw at Warhorns Winterfest in January, just even better defined. The vocals are so on point, the rhythm relentless and the lead break is just perfection in its tone. This for me is The Infernal Sea’s core sound honed, brutalised and unleashed

‘God Wills It’ drops several gears into a guttural stomp, nasty vocals and pounding drumbeats driving it slowly through the darkness. Here the energy in the previous tracks is clenched and dense, directed, powerful. ‘Field Of The Burned’ slowly steps up the gears, a tense and suffocating sound with superb use of echoing screams and cries that whisper ‘Elend’ to me in softer moments. Again, the sense of melody, in a full on black metal context, is superb; it never blunts claws but gets under your skin so easily. ‘Devoid Of Fear’ even with an almost martial drumbeat in places still rends and tears, lashing out wildly but being dragged back into order by that drumming. The title track almost muscles into Slegest territorial waters, a swagger and violent roll to it before a keening riff bulldozes you. ‘Unholy Crusade’ is just a driving, slightly punk tinged slice of black metal aggression. A great use of guitar lines running over the riff. ‘Rex Mundi’ a dark obliterating pummelling of black metal with great use of sparse almost clean vocal cries.

And then ‘Into The Unknown’. A wonderful ending. A melancholy beginning drifts into a black tide that pulls us into a sea where reflection barely keeps the aggression at bay. It seems to wrestle with itself until letting go and committing to the journey. It’s unnerving somehow, deranged and thoughtful rolling over and under. And when the riff drops back and we are left with that voice snarling….. We are abandoned.

If you get the impression I’m enjoying this a little, oh yeah. Oh yes. This is The Infernal Sea in full sail. The chaos and the control beautifully judged, the vision to step softly into more complexity but at the same time unleash the aggression. The melody, in a full on black metal sense, is superb, lashed to the slightly punk inflected riffs so it cuts deep and feral. It’s pitch black and tempestuous and quite remarkable. Probably the best full on UK black metal album I’ve heard since Abduction’s All Pain As Penance.

Sail these waters with care. There’s a storm brewing…

(9/10 Gizmo)

https://www.facebook.com/theinfernalsea

https://apocalypticwitchcraft.bandcamp.com/album/negotium-crucis