Let’s not beat about the bush here. When your album title sounds this much it should already be a Darkthrone album, it’s safe to say you’re wearing your influences on your suitably grim sleeve. To delve further into the known hallmarks of black metal, there’s all the lo-fi buzzing, garbled vocals and (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) sheer fury here as your withered heart could possibly desire. There’s even a grainy black and white photo on the front, even if it is verging on (affectionate) parody of the genre, but where Plague God stand out on the visual front is the packaging itself. Plague God have taken an… interesting approach to the old joke about metal bands being better the more illegible their logo. The Plague God logo is surprisingly clear for the genre, but pretty much every other word on their album is presented in all caps, in the kind of ornate gothic blackletter that’s far better at looking cool than it is at being any use as an actual alphabet. As in, I have the physical CD in my possession, but had to Google the track names. Which would ordinarily irritate the hell out of me, but the sheer dedication to doing things the old-school way here is actually quite endearing, and I can’t quite bring myself to be annoyed by it, regardless of how much harder it’s made my life as a reviewer. Oh, and if you want to listen to this album, you’ll have to invest in the actual CD, pay for it on Bandcamp, or listen to it on YouTube (presumably uploaded by the record label, I’m not convinced that Plague God will have had anything to do with YouTube voluntarily). It’s ridiculously, perversely old-school in the 2023rd year of our lord Fenriz, but honestly in an era where I can listen to almost anything in thirty seconds on Spotify, I have to admire the commitment here.

So that’s how Plague God, founded in Brno (Czechia) in 2021, have chosen to present their debut to the world, and before we even get into the music itself, I can already tell you that there’s a very specific type of black metaller that will assume this band’s approach and identity as their own for at least a year after listening to this. I won’t pursue that line much further, because I assume any readers of that flavour have already run off to order a physical copy and retreat with it into a strictly analogue world that doesn’t involve reading Ave Noctum. For the rest of you, however…

For all the set dressing that hints at a band that are either: actually stuck in around 1994, hilariously aware of their audience’s foibles, or a bit of both, this is a fairly solid slice of old school-style black metal. There’s some fairly clear influences from elsewhere in the genre here, the most prominent being Darkthrone, but there’s also shades of Satyricon, Cradle of Filth, Thorns and even a bit of early Kovenant lurking under the skin of New Veins for Old Blood. We start out with church bells, ominous chanting and suitably oppressive organ, that is very well done but confuses me slightly – it sounds very much like it’s laying the groundwork for something at least akin to a concept album, but what follows is no such thing. I mean, it’s a pretty effective slice of scene-setting, but I’m not entirely sure what it’s setting the scene for. From there, Charlatan Healer comes hurtling out of the gate, channelling Darkthrone with some obscenely filthy black metal groove, and the rest of the album proceeds to happen to the listener in much the same vein. There’s some fun samples (including the blatant lies in “Is Satan inside you?” “No!”), and an Intermezzo that sounds like Mascagni having a goth phase. It’s not quite Cavalleria rusticana, but you could probably play it on Classic FM and get few, if any, complaints. For me, the stand-out is Vikings, which is somewhat different kettle of fish to the rest of the album – it involves pipes of some description (or something that sounds remarkably like them), and the overall effect is, to be frank, groove-heavy black metal with bagpipes. I know, I know, but those of you who are still reading after that bombshell, I need to impress upon you how much better that is than it sounds. Personally, I’d take an entire album of the sound presented in Vikings, but I may be a minority on that one.

Then, after all the nods, winks and outright adulation in the general direction of Fenriz and Nocturno Culto, the album wraps up with actual Darkthrone in the form of a Transilvanian Hunger cover. I’m not always the biggest fan of covers generally – I like them to give me something I can’t get from the original, like the new wave vibes that Blondie brought to The Tide is High. Obviously not every cover can or will do that, and so I often end up a bit ambivalent towards cover versions, particularly if I already know and love the original, which is very much the case with Transilvanian Hunger. That said, I enjoyed Plague God’s version far more than I expected to when I saw it on the track list. It doesn’t deviate a great deal from Darkthrone on the whole, but it does have a density and richness to the sound that was deliberately missing when Darkthrone did it. Which is either fascinating and actually quite fun to listen to (my own personal take), or missing the point entirely – I don’t expect there to be a whole lot of middle ground on that one.

So, with the few exceptions noted above, New Veins for Old Blood is fairly consistent with what I expected of this album, based on the presentation. It’s not the most unique, innovative, or surprising album you’ll hear this year, but it is well-executed, and actually a lot of fun to listen to. I quite like it, but I suspect the mileage of others may vary wildly, to say the very least. Because if I can tell you one thing about Plague God and this album, it’s that there will be Opinions on this one, good and bad. Mine’s good though.

(8/10 Ellie)

NB: It would appear Dr Fé (Robert Krčmář – on vocals) has passed away since this album was released. Sympathies to everyone feeling his loss.

https://www.facebook.com/plaguegod.bm

https://plaguegod.bandcamp.com/album/new-veins-for-old-blood