After having just covered the lunacy of Horns and Hooves for another publication here comes another bunch of mad hatters, well and truly on the lunatic side of black metal. Having been active since 2005 one has to first address the elephant in the room. When this lot started out with seriously limited demo and split material, they found themselves on label and sharing recorded output with those beyond any claims of dubiousness. One can only hope this was down to either past members of the group or sheer ignorance of just what they had aligned themselves to. Luckily, they moved on from there to release six albums, first independently and then on different labels for each release before finally ending up here on Osmose. Although there are certain red flags of caution flying, it seems that it is all out misanthropy and extermination of the entire human race, as well as hatred of religion spurring them on, something that we are obviously not going to wield the ban hammer on.
The French trio along with session bassist have between them served time, past and present in such acts as Moonreich, The Negation, Hellchant, Lord Ketil and firm favourites of mine Griffon. After dispensing into opening atmospheric, orchestral intro it’s all guns blazing into BAAL-ZEBUB a strimming attack that is ferocious and lethal in the speed stakes and one that they adopt, on the whole for the duration of the album’s playing time. Apart from this, one thing that is quickly evident is that vocalist Psycho certainly lives up to his name. Rasping, screaming, screeching and occasionally death belching his way through things, this is where the lunatic edge comes in. Despite this, the occasional tongue in cheek song titles (‘In Nomine Leprosy’) and their errant use of capitalisation there is little in the way of any humour to be found here. This is second wave, grim and hostile, genocidal black metal which steamrollers around without a shred of mercy. Drums clatter away, buzz-saw guitars seethe, any bass is low in the mix and the vocals are increasingly demented.
There’s no deviation from the blasphemous attack. Titles like ‘Absence Of Faith’ and once translated ‘Que le sang coule dans les fleuves’ (Let the blood flow in rivers) speak for themselves, total contempt for everything and everyone. The latter of these tracks is the album standout for me as the band take feet off pedals and enthuse things with a particularly morbid sense of pathos. Apart from this though, it’s not the most diverse of listening experiences as the trio rattle and shake their way through things at a headlong and driving pace and you aren’t going to find anything particularly new here as one song cleaves its way into another. When there is an interlude its perpetuated by screams and the caw of carrion crows ready to pick at the bones of the battlefield. The one thing that can’t be denied here is dedication and determination to present an unrelenting and anti-humanist musical horror-scape and if that’s what you are looking for, welcome to a soundtrack worthy of the sulphur pits of hell itself.
(7/10 Pete Woods)
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