The news today is filled with horrific pictures of the aftermath of Hurricane Ida which ripped through Louisiana and Mississippi over the last couple of days. New Orleans is once again ravaged by weather with more cultural and musical landmarks destroyed including Louis Armstrong’s old haunt. It seems fitting then that Mehenet finds its way to my shell likes.
This NOLA bunch do not offer up the sludge that often oozes from the city – rather they create a captivating hybrid based on black metal and local sounds – a gumbo if you will. The stock that holds it together is the bands belief and passion for Quimbanda an Afro-Brazilian religion based on magic and rituals around various spirits. For Romero fans it is a religion that has close ties with Macumba. (You know Macumba? My grandaddy was a priest in Trinidad). So, what Mehenet do is ritualistic Black metal with a massive tribal edge.
The lyrics are mainly in Portuguese and are hymnal in style – it feels like the listener is part of a mystical ceremony in a back room behind a shop in New Orleans. Getting big Serpent and the Rainbow vibes from this.
As you would guess from anything described as tribal the drums are at the forefront here but all the instruments pick up the tribal rhythms throughout the album. The opener “Dona Sete” begins with bongos and a mix of percussion (the Sepultura comparisons are hard not to make) building into chants and from acoustic to electric as the black metal guitars break through and things take a very sinister swerve. The BM is a mix of groovy Satyricon swagger and razor-sharp riffs and the use of Portuguese incantation gives the music a very different perspective to the usual Judeo-Christian Satanic stylings.
“Horse to the Earth” depicts the bands Louisiana roots with some Dixieland jazz being played accompanied by an accordion whilst a dog barks in a clapperboard bar somewhere before erupting into mayhem.
Things change for track three. “In the garden of Suicide (Exu Morcego) mixes in clean singing (in English) and a doleful Doom/Death Paradise Lost aesthetic to weave a melancholy tale of depression and loss. Then out of nowhere a blistering assault of blackened blast beats and rasped vehemence. Nice juxtaposition guys!
“Whom God Did Despise” is a bit of a haphazard affair. It has more of a traditional Euro Black Metal feel – quite raw and hectic after a slow rhythmic ships drum start. For me it lacked the tribal feel of the other tracks and dropped the music back in with the myriad dark dwelling hordes.
The fifth and final track “The Mystery of Nations” opens up like early Bathory before relaxing back into a more mid paced affair which I gotta say I was not digging. Oh, but then it was time to pick things up with a proper old school blistering speed/black attack. The drums are a little off kilter for my liking but things get very evil sounding very quickly so I can forgive the poor tub thumper if they were possessed by something from another plain.
Over all Mehenet offer up an interesting take on modern Black Metal with a great local tribal twist. I think they could have kept it higher in their sound throughout the album rather than diluting it in the final couple of tracks. Definitely worth checking out, I would be interested to see if they are able to pull this off live.
(6.5/10 Matt Mason)
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