Pure Fucking Armageddon Part 4
Tyree is back with Pure Fucking Armageddon, his semi-regular series to highlight bands that will rip your face meat off and gnaw at it immodestly.
Sielunvihollinen – Hautaruhtinas (2015)
Sielunvihollinen is a black metal band hailing from Finland, a solid guarantee of a quality black metal product. Hautaruhtinas currently ranks at the number 3 spot on my 2015 best-of list and for very good reason. Sielunvihollinen play a straight forward style of black metal incorporating melodic melodies, frostbitten guitar leads, and mood swinging tempo changes. The album starts out with two up tempo tracks that get the listener’s blood flowing fast and then quickly slowing it down with tracks “Mustien aaltojen armoilla” and “Kammiooni hämärään” (two of my favorite songs on the album). Sielunvihollinen really stand out on the slower tracks in my opinion which allows the guitars to have more room to bring those bone chilling guitar leads/melodies. The slower tracks are much more desolate, and they carry a copious amount of melancholy where as the faster songs are almost more uplifting sounding at times. Things pick back up again with “Ikuinen musta liekki” which is the strongest faster paced song on Hautaruhtinas, and then things slow back down with the strongest track on the whole album which is the title track “Hautaruhtinas”. The album finishes the way it starts with two faster songs leaving you breathless and ready to repeat. Sielunvihollinen are the real deal, and they created an original sounding black metal album with out being fancy or progressive. Fans of Dissection and Bathory get on this. You will not be disappointed.
Caterva Runa – Europa Nostra (2015)
For whatever reason a lot of French black metal has been making an impression on me, new and old. I can’t complain. I came across Caterva Runa through a recommendation from former toileteer Howard Dean. Caterva Runa are a Pagan Black Metal outfit bringing the raw goods and the incredibly strong black metal riffs. Europa Nostra is one harsh listen for sure, and the vocals could have been mixed down more than a tad bit. I think the vocal mix may even be worse than that of Darkthrone‘s Panzerfaust. The vocals almost completely drown all the instruments out at times which is sort of annoying, but it won’t stop me from listening. The album is mostly mid-paced throughout with songs strongly carried by captivating guitar riffs. There is nothing groundbreaking here, just some impressive raw to the point black metal. Black metal is pushing the boundaries these days and sometimes we need a release like Europa Nostra to remind us that black metal can be its strongest by not adding any bullshit or polished coatings. Just a well crafted traditional black metal approach is where it’s at, and Europa Nostra brings that point home. The song that stands out the most on Europa Nostra has to be “Les chacals” which translates to “Jackals”. The song comes off as an anthem of sorts with harmonized group chanting. It feels like something you’d hear a group of drunken metal heads chanting together in a bar at 2 in the morning. It’s in French so it sounds like drunken gibberish to me anyways. I did read up on the song’s meaning and it is quite political as is the whole album, but I will not get into that here; the music is the main thing. No frills here, just a good first release by a band that will only get better with time.
Kriegszittern – Frostbite Demo (2015)
Goddamn! This is is my kind of death metal right here folks. Time to enter the panzer and decimate the world! Kriegszittern are a death metal act hailing from Germany. These lads play a very primitive style of death metal that is ugly and filthy. Frostbite oozes out 3 war obsessed tracks that bring the savagery to a colossal amount by adding crusty elements and OSDM influences to the table. Much like all the bands on here, Kriegszittern are not going to win any originality trophies by any means but that’s obviously not what they were going for here. Many influences can be pulled out of this demo. Three of the big ones being Bolt Thrower, Entombed, and even some Autopsy which can be heard on the doomier second track. I know the “Dick Crushing” term gets overused here, but this demo is just that. Get your dick crushed by an absolute pulverizing war infused OSDM demo.
Opositor – Demo (2015)
There is never anything wrong with some oldschool Blasphemy worship and Opositor do just that, and they do it to a raw degree. Opositor are a two piece that hail from Spain that are set on making some of the rawest and meanest sounding war metal out there in vein of the mighty Blasphemy. What I like about this demo the most aside from the raw aggression is how laid back it feels. Some war metal releases sound way too forced. This demo feels like the material just came to life very naturally and maybe that has something to do with the very raw approach they decided to go with. Opositor worship chaos, and they show it by delivering pure primitive savagery. Fuck off Protools, get raw and nasty with some old fashion war metal. So put on your bullet belt, battle jacket, spikes, and join Satan’s army in hellfire.
Azelisassath – Evil Manifestations Against Mankind (2014)
This is a 2014 release but that means absolutely nothing because it’s so damn good. I’d write about Azelisassath’s 2015 release if I could find it, but unfortunately the band did a stellar job of eliminating digital tracks and from what I can find online the physical copy only comes in cassette from overseas. So, we are going to go with Evil Manifestations Against Mankind instead.
Azelisassath is a one man black metal project hailing from Sweden consisting of Swartadauþuz who is also part of 9 other active black metal projects including Bekëth Nexëhmü, Daudadagr, and Grav. The first thing that struck me upon the first listen to this album was the complete 180 direction he took with the vocals. The vocals are a much more Immortal and Inquisition styled approach, but they are very hidden in the mix. I’m not at all big on the Abbath style black metal vocals but, like I said, the vocal mix is buried and is used more as an atmospheric instrument by cloaking them with reverb and delay. The first full-length album In Total Contempt of All Life was quite the opposite style of vocals by using a more traditional style of black metal vocals. All vocals aside the main attraction I have to this album is the music itself. This is a VERY grim sounding Swedish black metal album. The whole Swedish mix is there, and it is beyond cold and I fucking love it. The riffs are completely frostbitten and that guitar tone that is drenched in unholy reverb just sends chills down my spine. The one thing I was really shocked by was how talented of a drummer Swartadauþuz is. This guy can blast and bring the double bass with the best of them but the thing that really stands out is his drum fills. The man can bring the drum fills hard, and they are creative. By using certain ascents and patterns he really adds a whole new dynamic to the album’s sound. Another shocking element is the prominent bass guitar which is always sort of a rarity in back metal. There is a use of synths in this album, but they are used as a haunting background which adds layers of atmospheric dread to the already grim sound. This is an incredible black metal album with a shit ton of haunting atmosphere. Hopefully the 2015 release will emerge eventually. If you see it please let me know.
