Black Witchery: Inferno of Sacred Destruction (2010)

Review

I bought Black Witchery's Inferno of Sacred Destruction by accident, after seeing it and thinking, "I know there was a band with 'witch' in their name with a new album I wanted to check out." Call it a happy accident.

Black Witchery is a Floridian band that's sometimes been called "war metal", an ill-defined tag that generally means thrashy, ugly, unrelentingly aggressive black metal. The tag is appropriate. Every track on here is fast and aggressive; the title track is the slowest one on here, but even it couldn't be considered mid-paced. And the music is definitely ugly. Think early Norwegian black metal heard coming up from a crypt, with all the echo and deeper register you'd expect from the depths of the tomb. The vocals are a deeper version of a black metal rasp, along with the occasional inhuman gurgle, and all the instruments play a whole lot of notes, real fast.

To go along with the evil sound, they've got the imagery and song titles (probably lyrics too, if you can discern them--I caught something about tearing an angel apart). They would probably be offensive if they weren't hilariously over the top. Highlights of the album like "Holocaustic Church Devastation" and "Barbarism Domination" are perfect examples of their Dethklok-esque sense of humor. And when you see their band picture on Metal Archives it becomes clear these guys have it down even better than the creators of that show.

To break up the aggression, they've wisely included some eerie ambient sections and "Sepulchral Witchcraft", which is little more than ambient. This leaves you with only 7 short songs, including a cover. Even including the intro and interludes, the total runtime is just over 22 minutes. And they call it a full-length, which to me seems like an outright lie. In my opinion, anything shorter than 30 minutes is an EP, regardless of the standards of the particular band or subgenre. But the length is a good thing, as I could see this becoming tiresome after much longer. It doesn't have a chance to get old. On the downside, there's only one solo (a freaky atonal one on the closing track). And they curiously end some of the tracks with a fadeout, something that seems out of place with these short, punchy songs.

The Verdict: This is an entertaining EP (by any other name), and I think these guys need to get hired to work on a spinoff to Metalocalypse. If you're looking for something completely evil-sounding and aggressive, but doesn't take itself too seriously, I would recommend it if you could get it at an EP price. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Marduk: Opus Nocturne (1994) Review

In Decibel's recent article (July 2010) on Watain, they had a sidebar on their picks for the five best Swedish black metal albums of all time. They picked Marduk's Opus Nocturne in the number 2 spot, so I decided to check it out.

As you might expect, they start with an intro--nearly every black metal album does. This one is organ. OK, after you get past that, it's crazy-fast tremolo riffing madness. They do have slower parts here and there, including whole songs ("Materialized in Stone" and the title track). These serve only to mix it up, though.

Marduk is at their absolute best when they're going all-out. The most impressive feat, perhaps, is "From Subterranean Throne Profound", nearly 8 minutes of high-speed riffing, without letting up one bit, and also without getting dull for one second. They manage it by changing up the riffs often, but it all seems to fit. The other major highlight is album closer "The Sun Has Failed", which is much more varied, alternating between an impenetrable wall of sound and passages with a little breathing room, tauntingly letting you come up choking for just a moment before plunging your head back under water.

The music is great (no disappointments there) but the production is also worthy of praise. Despite having that lo-fi, early black metal aesthetic (still sought out by some) they still manage to do everything well. You can hear the bass throughout (it's often a focal point) and the drums can be absolutely monstrous (see the opening to "Deme Quaden Thyrane" for examples of both).



The Verdict: Decibel was right, this is great black metal. The only bad thing I can say is I didn't really need two minutes of storm sounds at the end. I give Opus Nocturne 5 out of 5 stars.

Melechesh: Emissaries (2006) Review

On the strength of the recommendation of a law school contemporary of mine, Metallattorney (his link is now in my sidebar), I picked up Melechesh's highly acclaimed Emissaries. I had heard of it before, but hadn't paid much attention to it until now. I'm glad I did.

This Armenian/Assyrian/Dutch quartet (originally from Israel) plays a style they call "Mesopotamian" black metal. This means they combine the usual black metal stylings with Middle Eastern elements, both musical and lyrical.

The result of this infusion of Oriental music creates a sound which is much more melodic than your usual black metal. This has two important consequences. First, though the rhythm section and vocals are 100 percent black metal, the lead guitar sounds more like thrash. This isn't too unexpected, since black metal grew out of thrash metal in the first place. The second consequence is much more surprising: Melechesh has managed to create black metal which is almost accessible, at least to anyone who's listened to more mainstream groups such as the big four.

All this about genre fusion and musicality should not detract from an important fact: This is uncompromisingly diabolical metal. With the exception of the welcome (if a bit too long) all-acoustic respite "The Scribes of Kur" at track 7, they don't let up.

It's also cleanly recorded and produced, something that may turn off a few black metal purists. But purism is sometimes just another word for stupidity. The production is excellent, except, as you might expect, you can rarely hear the bass.



The Verdict: The songs are memorable and well-written, and the performances are aggressive and full of conviction. It manages to be almost accessible--a gateway to black metal fandom for anyone who's been exposed to thrash metal--without alienating any but the most closed-minded core fans. This album is brilliant, and easily one of the top black metal albums of all time. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.