Must be a full-moon. We just recovered from a savage mauling by Australian band Werewolves and now we have more lycanthropic rage from Columbus Ohio. Invultation is apparently the practice of making and using effigies of people for magical purposes (think voodoo dolls) and musically is the work of lone-wolf Andrew Lampe. Also active in other projects such as Acrid Tomb, Echushkya, Longbarrow & The Wakedead Gathering, I guess we will be further exploring his other output very soon as I note that the latter have a new album imminent, which is on next week’s review list.
For now though we have 25-minutes of caustic blackened death here which at times is pretty damn close to being further defined as War Metal. Originally released independently on CDr back in 2020, this has been given a new lease of death via Polish label Fallen Temple and despite expecting lo-fi sound it has a particularly barraging heft about it recording wise.
After Invocating black flames via low inhuman grumbling and brooding, bouncing, slow drumming, hell is unleashed as ‘The Wolfstrap’ is set and the full weight of this bestial savage attack flies through the woods looking for prey to decimate. It’s a hairy, galloping mass of fury with drums pummelling and hoary, low vocal tones. The war metal effect comes partly from the speed and also from the Deiphago like runs up and down the guitar strings which are employed a fair bit over the course of the recording. With these, there is a bit of a slow down in the assault and one gets the image in their head of the shaggy monster having disembowelled its victim and having fun skipping around with their entrails. That could be due to the fact that I have recently revisited James C. Wasson classic video nasty Night of the Demon (1980) though. Is this wolf going to tear an unsuspecting biker’s todger off? Quite likely as the taught and tough razor-wire guitar scythes create mayhem over the battering drums.
If you are hoping for deviant sexual practices there is a ‘Crushed Skull Fetish’ to contend with which seems far more dangerous than anything as normal as auto-asphyxiation. There’s about as much subtlety in the music as there is in titles such as ‘Mangled Throat Of The Bastard.’ This is good, clean efficient butchery although more in the form of The Growling rather than The Howling due to the vocals which are craggy as fuck. I enjoyed this, it is incredibly evil sounding and makes full use of transformative state to cause as much carnage as possible. By the time wind freezes the bones and we plummet into ‘Ritual Lupine Savagery’ the odds are uncertain on surviving the night intact. Obviously, the beasty did as it was back again next year with full-length ‘Unconquerable Death.’ More chapters may yet be written… Special mention here goes to the striking cover art from Warhead Art, it really does fit excellently with the bludgeoning music.
(7/10 Pete Woods)
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