A good album title has always been a sellable gimmick throughout the history of music, but it’s something else to come across an album whose name reflects just how much you are enjoying it and never want the experience to stop.
The somewhat enigmatic group, Modern Rites with members hailing from Switzerland and further afield have returned with sophomore album, Endless, and what an endless piece of hefty, industrial black metal fun have they come up with.
I would best describe this studio outing as hypnotic, and not in a light-hearted sense. When a band is able to grab the listener by the inner psyche and keep them focussed in a metaphysical chokehold for the best part of an hour, you know you’ve found a band who know what they’re doing and will not be mellowing any time soon.
As mentioned, this duo are made up of Swiss members, a country that has berthed some of the finest industrial black metal in history, namely Samael and their catchy mix of black metal evil with the corrugated, spark-flashing crunchiness of industrial music (Borgne too should not be overlooked; thee Ed). A mix that is balanced almost to sheer perfection as the metaphysical machine of sound churns out speedy, eye-boggling black metal on ever track – all delivered with precision blast beats and tremolo focussed guitars reminding me of the late 90s and early 00s when Europe went black metal mad.
One thing that a lot of people have said over the last few years is that black metal has become oversaturated – at least that’s how some of my social circles perceive it. And to an extent I do agree with them – but one area of the black metal world that doesn’t seem to have been overcooked in every sense of the word, is the industrial black metal realm.
Having heard countless atmospheric, melodic and raw outfits over the years, it is good to see a breath of freshly putrid air wafting through the black metal echelons, and I can easily see Modern Rites as a leading force in keeping this sound alive and kicking. I have yet to see industrial black metal become a trendy sound, and if it were to go that way, I’d be pleased to see Modern Rites leading the charge of new groups across the European communities ready to enjoy black metal at its most electronic.
Overall, we have an album that has set these two blokes on a new path of brilliance, and their fast and deadly take on one of the underrated black metal subgenres makes them stand apart from their contemporaries who should take note of their creative input.
(8.5/10 Demitri Levantis)
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