After eight years smouldering, 2023 saw a re-stoking the infernal fires from US thirty plus year veterans of the black metal world Demoncy. They released an album this year and now this EP sneaks in at the end.
So we get a lengthy into, ‘Satanas Vult’, full of strange chattering, tolling bels and chanting church-like voices distorted. Pretty much first chapter, first paragraph from the black metal handbook but if you’ve been around since 1989 I think you’ve earned the right, yeah? For some this would be cliché but when you’re talking about a band who was right there near the beginning you kinda own this stuff. First track proper starts with no preamble; the title track rumbles out with a dense down-tuned riff and half snarled half whispered vocals. It is a dark and doomy take on black metal, a dragging the crypts and caverns type of thick sound. Often ponderous, always cloying it has that vein of death metal too in the sound which has a sense of control.
‘Sepulcrum Spectra’ speeds up a little, a recurring hypnotic riff, a simple straightforward drive pushes this on with a real sense of maniacal malice. ‘Malum Incarnatus Est’ adds some real turbulence to the EP, a great twisting, coiling riff and that low gear pitch black engine driving it. It’s really top notch of its style and, dare I say it, perfect Hell’s Headbangers music too. Closing with ‘Consummatum Est’, another soundscape of darkness, is about spot on.
So there you have it. Just what you asked for from Santa… sorry Satan. Twenty-two minutes of no messing, grim, dark black metal. Very traditional and no worse for it. This has guts and that monomaniacal sense of drive and direction. If you like your black metal thick and straightforward and played with total devotion, it’s a fine Yule soundtrack.
(7/10 Gizmo)
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