The delightfully entitled Hurricane Hellfukker is the man essentially behind German act Illum Adora (also of Zarathustra) and has been active under that name since 2011. He has seen collaborators come and go through a couple of albums, splits EP’s and a live recording over this time but as the name suggests, here we go back to the first recorded demos of the band which originally came out in 2015-16 and have been compiled together for this compilation.

First thing noticeable is that the recording is loud and sharp. It is quite listenable but lacking in bottom end. Although T Vogt is listed as session guitarist and bass player the latter is noticeably lacking in the mix. That said his guitar work really does make an impression as it snakes around these recordings. Inspiration for first demo ‘Begotten’ is obviously taken from Edmund Elias Merhige’s hallucinatory head-fuck of a film, even the original artwork of the cassette makes this quite clear. As ominous rumbles make way to clattering drums, the harsh recording sound pierces the eardrums and vocals yap away with an unhinged perniciousness. It sounds older than its years and is suitably raw and primitive. Delivered with plenty of drive this nostalgic sound has an immediacy which is going to endear listeners to the early times before the light as it takes in everything from Nattens era Ulver to Judas Iscariot and mercilessly batters into submission. ‘Those No Longer There’ has some chanting and slows the pace allowing the garbled Arckanum sounding trollish vocals to gurgle away over a simplistic but captivating guitar riff. It’s rudimentary, repetitive but quite captivating. From acoustic guitar to Bathory sounding chants ‘Astral Wings’ certainly has an authentically rooted sound and a neat pagan furrow about it taking back to the medievalism of the black metal scene. The message of ‘Oderint, Dum Metuant’ is ‘let them hate, as long as they fear’ and its suitably chaotic in structure and discipline. It’s pretty obvious if you have not read up on things that ‘Prince Of Hell And Fire’ is a cover due to the proto metal / near NWOBHM construct of the guitar leads. It’s actually one courtesy of cult early 80’s Belgian speed metal band Acid and the chances are you will recognise it and be humming along in no time at all.

Second demo entitled ‘Unchained From Slavery’ after wolfish intro sees session drummer D.M. taking over from previous sticks-man Hellbastard and upping the bounce stakes on ‘Chosen To Dwell Above The Ruins.’ This does thicken the sound and the folkish weave of the guitars and vocal snarls show the act have come on a bit in the last year. It’s actually a cracking track complete with a slower mid-section and catchy as hell with it. Doom-laden dark-throned crags are explored at length on ‘Blessed Are The Destroyers’ and this filthy, gnarly pace is adopted on the last couple of tracks before they hook us in one final time with a cover of Plasmatic song ‘Lightning Breaks.’ Wendy O. Williams would have hopefully approved.

I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected and it’s definitely set me up for exploring more recent titles by the band; although I may sensibly pass on repeat viewing of Begotten!

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/IllumAdora

https://fallentemple.bandcamp.com/album/non-serviam-black-metal-the-demos