IMPETUOUS RITUAL - Unholy Congregation Of Hypocritical Ambivalence (2014, Profound Lore Records)

‘Play it loud’ might sound like a trite suggestion in the world of death metal. Yet to all those saddos (like me) who are unable to blast the latest offerings on a quality home system, the humble headphone must become the medium with which to absorb their music of choice. If you are a headphone wearer about to listen to Impetuous Ritual’s recent release ‘Unholy Congregation Of Hypocritical Ambivalence’, then as I said at the beginning of this review; turn it up - as loud as you can take it…

The reason for this became clear to me on the third listen of this record. I absolutely loved these Australian’s debut ‘Relentless Execution Of Ceremonial Excrescence’, and had been eagerly awaiting the follow up for much of the last four years or so. After the first listen, it was obvious that while retaining all the key elements of that debut - namely the clangour and clamour of bestial war metal of death and a dirge-heavy expression of unrelenting, cavernous doom – that rather than invigorate or brighten the overall aesthetic as bands often choose to do (see the latest Portal for an example), Impetuous Ritual had instead taken their cue from their other project, Grave Upheaval, and shrunk further back into the tar-black immensity of the underground realm from where they draw the wellspring of their inspiration.

There are some out there who will listen to this and find it all a bit much. Fuck them. The secret is to turn the volume up loud enough so that you are truly immersed in the reverberating, thunderous sound field, which, far from being ‘badly produced’ or ‘lo-fi’, is actually a carefully realised and perfectly balanced sonic miasma that, rather than meekly stepping toward, you need to let yourself fall into. Once you locate your bearings in this tumult, allow the vicious, barbaric and dismal ritual to pound away at your psyche. The booming bass drum, which tends to be utilised in black metal rather more than death (in my experience), swells ominously across the vast cavern (for surely this spewed forth from a subterranean realm) in which Impetuous Ritual invoke the savage torments of this most atavistic of death metal expressions.

Going through the album track by track is fairly meaningless – here and there the lumbering doom or blasting sections are pierced by tortured shred or swelling reverberating drones, and the vocal styles range from cadaver-priest chants to occasional horrific shrieks as heard in ‘Inservitude of Asynchronous Duality’. But while tracks are distinguished by their own dynamics, the album works best when experienced as one long immersive trawl through a battle-scarred, charred and smoking landscape where graves burst open and the undead rise to the exhortations of unholy necromancy. Well that was my impression…suffice it to say that devotees of earlier Incantation, Portal, Grave Miasma, Abruptum, Encoffination and the like, will find this a richly rewarding listen which, for myself at least, draws me ever further into its black heart upon repeated listening.

Just turn it up. LOUD

85%

MELEKTAUS - Transcendence Through Ethereal Scourge (2004, Grotesque Productions)

There's a whole lot of noise out there in regard to internet file sharing. Well this review is testament to what happens when the interweb/music connection really works. To put it simply, download band x, listen to band x, band x absolutely slays, go to website x and buy cd of said band. Without file sharing there's a great deal of music I wouldn't have been able to hear. Discovering new music, such as the 2004 album Transcendence Through Eternal Scourge, is a life passion. When it is as good as this slab of ferocity, I praise the wonder of the information superhighway and spend my money on a product of the band's. How can that be a bad thing?

Oh, the review...well I mentioned the sheer ferocity of the album. In a world full of bands who blast it takes something stupendous to stand out. What Melektaus achieve here is a level of unrelenting viciousness, propelled by a snare drum which almost literally slices, and a kickdrum which pummels to perfection. Production on the whole is spot-on, Melektaus refreshingly choose a sound which allows each instrument to be heard with clarity without sacrificing the requisite rawness. A nice change from the current wave of almost miasmic death metal, such as Impetuous Ritual, Portal and Encoffination, who bury their discord in shrouds of lo-fidelity and feedback. Not that I don't love that sound, but in this instance it is great to hear each component clear from the grave's choking influence. The vocals lack variation but are pretty balanced within the mix, and are not overused or over-emphasised so as to detract from the music.

Melektaus' devotion to razor sharp grinding death is occasionally pared back to reveal, often through doomier sections, a hint of the epic grandiosity of Nile or Behemoth. But where those bands often move beyond traditional death metal structures, using keyboards and ancient instrumentation to hint at an archaic time of war and conquest, Melektaus do not stray beyond the traditional guitar/drums/bass sound. It's actually a relief to hear so focussed an aural assault - no need for any filigree here, this music expresses itself through a barely controlled violence that occasionally reminds of the straightforward savagery of vintage Slayer.

As I said, this made such an impression I literally went straight online and purchased a copy. So picking out highlights is difficult, but suffice it to say that the sheer quality of the work here means that attention never wavers. There is a surgeon's precision at work here, but with the threat of butchery ever apparent. Anyone who has heard Dominus Xul will recognise the roots of Melektaus' brutality, but without the more primitive sonic approach. I was often reminded of Impetuous Ritual's use of twin guitar discordance and as mentioned the short doom passages hint at Nile. However none of those bands utilise quite the same levels of hyper-speed intensity. Comparisons in this regard take me to more black metal oriented acts such as 1349 or Sammath.

Overall, if any of the bands referenced in this review appeal, Transcendence Through Eternal Scourge will doubtless resonate. If you haven't heard any of the bands above, but the thought of vicious, blasting and sinister death metal that hints at the epic but never waivers from brutal concision appeals, then this unheralded classic surely deserves some of your time. 

PORTAL Swarth (2009, Profound Lore Records)

The elusive pursuit of the truly original is something that binds much modern music, and death metal, for all it's supposed extremities, perversities and anti-mainstream posturing, is no less bound to all too common forms and modes. Thank the multifarious Dark Lords then, for Australia's Portal. It's Death Metal Jim, but not (quite) as we know it...

This is album number three for the faceless ones, and despite a somewhat 'improved' sonic fidelity, this remains a dense, churning, cacophonous maelstrom of a record that ticks the same boxes as previous full lengths 'Outre' and 'Seepia'. Themes of cryptic Lovecraftian menace combined with crawling, creeping passages, skittering drums like miniature tornados; riffs of technical yet unconventional atonal savagery; roaring vocals lurking in the mix courtesy of the grandfather clock-headed Curator. There are a couple of moments where hideous bastardized travesties of melody rear their heads, like deformed children's songs ('Writhen' and the album highlight 'Omenknow'), and there seems to be less of the 'black ambience' that characterized their previous outing. Essentially what Portak have done on 'Swarth' is to 'streamline' their sound, to refine their ghoulish outre. Whether they eventually make the leap into truly uncharted territory, melding their horror-drenched crawl with some new stygian dynamic, remains to be seen. But for now, no-one out there sounds quite like them.

85%