A lot of horror themed albums come our way, sometimes they try just a bit too hard and come across as mere shadows of their subject matter. Occasionally though you listen to a piece of music in an unsuspecting fashion and without even suggesting that it is going to, it successfully projects the true essence of fear onto the listener and can be a genuinely frightening proposition. This leads me onto the 8th album from Polish band Gurthang, old hands at playing doom tinged black metal and creating an aura of palpable tension and downright malevolent terror. I had not covered them since their stunning 6th release ‘Ascension’ of 2019 and perhaps was not expecting such downright eerie atmosphere from the new release. Perhaps it was even more effective as it had a reading companion in the form of Adam Nevill’s new alien invasion novel ‘All The Fiends Of Hell’ being devoured as I was giving Martyrium successive spins. Putting the two together heightened both musical and literary attack and to put it simply they pretty much scared the living hell out of me. I should hasten to add even without the book, this album is quite capable of doing that on its own.

Made up of five numbers including very lengthy opening and closing segments this flows together wonderfully. You don’t get as much of the way of the faster blastbeat style I encountered last time around and opener ‘Aesthetics of Solicitude’ seeps in like swirling mist taking form. There are stacks of snaking tentacles reaching out with umbilical grasp from this, presented by gothic grandeur via the delicious and dark guitar coils. Once things are formed over a thudding beat we bear witness to the equally horrifying vocal delivery of A.Z.V. Hostile and slightly alien sounding, it sounds like they have some effects added to them making them all the more chilling as they are snarled out in English. Surprisingly they are also quite distinguishable and certain phrases occasionally stick out making things all the more dramatic. Combined with the melody which is represented like cold icy fingers stroking your back, the overall effect is incredibly macabre. It dawns as we move on that it is not just doomy black metal, there is as stated a Gothic tenebrosity from the glimmering acoustic guitar parts but also a slow brooding industrial harshness from vocals and drumming. Add to all this a feel instrumentally due to the more ambient segments of a soundtrack, this would certainly enrich and cast a pall of dread over any film. As the vocalist starts chanting out the words “there is no God in me” you can’t help but shiver wondering just what ghastliness we are going to find in further chapters of the album. By name indeed this ‘Conundrum Unfolds’ and with the opening battery that harsh industrial vibe of bands such as mid-era Satyricon, Thorns and Mysticum is noticeable as galloping parts are counterpoised by cold and ruthless passages of unstoppable stealth. It’s damn effective and leaves you nervously on the edge of your seat.

A gloomy moribund shroud is cast over the melody of ‘Antithesis of Creation’ something absolutely inhuman is being created and taking form. Once it is fully developed it will spread and contaminate everything it touches until the planet is turned into an inhospitable wasteland. Well that’s the feeling I get from it as it moves closer via ominous distant drum booms in the distance. ‘Discernment’ acts as a short instrumental part and leads us via a precarious bridge along with a massive demonic roar into the last monstrous section ‘In Voidwards Begotten.’ With that title in mind one has to wonder if E. Elias Merhige’s experimental masterpiece of cinema perhaps provided some inspiration? Gurthang would not be the first to do so but it does make sense and none have trodden down such paths to better effect. As the words ‘I am the devil incarnate’ emerge from this slow encroaching ruinous musical excursion you may well be wondering if your nerves are going to allow you to make it to the end.

A fantastic album here, this one really got the imagination flowing and if you like your music to be diabolically malign you simply have to check this one out. Congratulations on really creeping me out!

(8.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://immortalfrostproductions1.bandcamp.com/album/martyrium