My final bit of cassette cacophony for the moment is this from Polish/Finnish based raw black metal band Throat. It comprises their debut 2020 demo ‘New Flesh Nectar’ and this year’s EP Blood Exaltation. So to be honest I thought let’s start with the demo despite being side two.
Split into two passages, it begins with harsh pipes and drone, an eerie almost Middle Eastern/North African sound before the utterly lo-fi sound hits; echoing drums from the corner of the room, muddy riff and snarled vocals building into a primitive and relentless, mid paced grind. It’s probably the vocals that lift this so much – their cavernous sound, unhinged snarls and snaps and malevolence ladle on the atmosphere. Unsurprisingly this is not hook or melody laden, rather the subterranean insanity of things walking which should not have learned to crawl. Yeah I like this. And I make no excuse for it. It’s the kind of completely unproduced muck and filth that somehow still glistens with a perverse and intense attraction. They vary the pace, shift into hurtling drums that drown out the guitar and back again. The passages pretty much bleed into one another, the second with an extended, sparse instrumental sound before the ponderous riff and vocals stagger in. Yes, it will always be an acquired taste but I acquired it a long while back.
The other side, the first side is another two tracks. We begin with ‘Chuc’. A ritualistic sound, again a cavernous echoing one, before the slow, heavy riff rises. The production is a real step up. I mean I’d still tag it as lo-fi but the bass has a thick layer, the guitar is filthy but right at the front and the drumming now sits within the band. And then it hits the accelerator and it absolutely rips. Utterly. This is a thick black sound, a road drill juddering through your soul. The vocals are still insane, but a purpose glistens in there. It has an almost d-beat feel somewhere beneath the layers of thick, tarry black metal. Tempos rise and then slump into a sickening lethargy before gathering their anger once more for a final bout of bloodletting and savagery. Nine minutes of this and I could have listened to another nine. Which is fortunate as ‘Klatwa’ deviates little. The strange ritualistic sounds open, the slow paced rise of the music before it seizes the weapons and rages. I mean damn, this just sounds… like black metal.
Ok so you have to really like music that makes Hellhammer sound like Dimmu Borgir and it certainly doesn’t sit in that ever expanding world of black metal as indebted to Amenra and sludge as Bathory and Mayhem (no foul, like what you like). But if low-fi, no-fi absolutely black (fukkin’) metal is your thing then, well, you know….
…Go for the Throat!
(8/10 Gizmo)
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