One of the biggest draws to Metal for me is excess, I would have thrived in the early days of Grindcore searching for the most hideous bands I could find. In fact, it’s something me and my best friend would often do. Each week at school bringing in more and more extreme releases until we were firmly cemented as the weird Metalheads. Anyway, it’s that kind of envelope pushing that keeps me coming back for more in the likes of Death Metal and today we’ve got quite the powerhouse.
That’s right today it’s all about Tardus Mortem a Denmark based Death Metal band with a penchant for disgust and a sort of cavernous new wave of OSDM vibe. It’s a scene that I can really get behind, the likes of Cryptic Shift, Hyperdontia, Corpesessed, Black Curse and more spring to mind. Anyway, Tardus formed in 2015 and eventually in 2019 dropped their first full length Engulfed In Pestilent Darkness. Now under the banner of the mighty Emanzipation Productions they gift us their second release Armageddon!
I’m a real big fan of long songs and so the album opening with Condemned To The Halls Of Infernal Sin is already a big of a winner. This is far from Prog or Tech Death though, this is basically just wall noise, Incantation worshipping hellfire, and I bloody love it! It makes me think of the lesser-known band Grim Tormentor who are well worth a listen and similarly a more Blackened equivalent. Honestly though this is just poor production, messy, vile Death Metal, how it should be done. I would argue that there are undoubtedly some Funeral Doom elements to be noted as well, this pretty much comes from the length though and a handful of more sluggish elements. From Heaven’s Throne Thee Bring Forth Death pretty much follows suit with more rampant wall noise Death Metal vigour, it’s not much to write home about but it’s absolutely fantastic if you dig this kind of hideous Death Metal.
Next comes the albums boldest statement the twenty three minute epic Gust Of Armageddon (Suicidal Winds). I mean it’s pretty much just sonic torment again, but there is a certain air of triumph about it. The intro is huge and truly captivating and indeed this follows through into the unnecessarily heavy meat of the track, damn it’s nasty, the bass tone sickens me in the best possible way. You could almost call it atmospheric to a degree, I’ve been to Noise gigs where you just sit on the floor and let waves of sound pass through you and this absolutely has that same kind of harmony in chaos energy. This is without a doubt the closest thing I’ve ever heard to a successful Noise/ Death Metal combination, I’m not sure that’s the intention but regardless I’m a big fan either way, it makes War Metal look like Power Metal. Closing the release is Nun Of The Pyre and a cover of Grave’s Into The Grave, do they need to be there? Not really.
All in all this is a blinding release and for sure a highlight of 2021, fans of the outlandish and perverse won’t want to miss out on Armageddon. If I had but one issue though it would those aforementioned final songs, Nun Of The Pyre and the Grave cover (especially the cover). They’re both kind of filler in an album that really doesn’t need it, they also don’t add anything that hasn’t already been done on the album. None the less I don’t wish to deter anyone, this is so close to perfect it hurts and I think you’ll see that reflected in my score.
(9/10 George Caley)
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