Triumvir Foul: From the Mouth of the Abyss

How many times have contemporary bands in the underground been described with words like: cavernous, filthy, occult, ancient, rotten... I myself am guilty of the same descriptive action, and won't avoid it in future writings either. Artists orbiting around this anti-sphere are often competent at reproducing the necessary atmosphere implied by those adjectives, and fewer artists' output sometimes makes them feel inadequate. 

For the relatively short-lived Portland, Oregon outfit named Triumvir Foul, their discography is concentrated enough to not make you dizzy: three full-length albums, a demo, an EP and a wish of good riddance after eight years of action from 2014 to 2022. In those years, they managed something of their own when it comes to dismantling the atmosphere mentioned above, with that series of excellent releases deep into suffocating production, tormenting echo and top-notch death / black / doom metal musicianship.

The original two-man nucleus of the band consisted of R. (also known as Ad Infinitum) and M. Cedentibus, bassist / vocalist and drummer of Ash Borer at the time. Both individuals were involved in several other quality projects, and R. is also known for founding Vrasubatlat, a parent label to host the activities of their collective. 

Meeting products that consistently dealt with the darker margins of extreme metal, label and bands walked hand in hand with a philosophy of reverence for punk and metal of death, Triumvir Foul being the most straightforward death metal-oriented flagship of the lot. Imagine being a big fan of the Cascadian black metal scene and the hyper-atmospheric work of Ash Borer, somewhere around 2015. You learn that The Irrepassable Gate would be the project's final album, and then find out about a new entity from the same musicians, playing death metal? My stubbornness barely lasted, especially when I came across Triumvir Foul's full body of work.  

Band name & label: Etymology 

Sources tell us that "Vrasubatlat" is written in the fictional language of the Orcs (the Black Speech) from Lord of the Rings, and translates to "I will kill you". It is part of the full phrase "ashdautas vrasubatlat" = one day I will kill you, and as I read somewhere, a common way for orcs to greet each other. Above sources though, is my own knowledge, and I have to say I've never found this statement or its related usage in any of Tolkien's books. Since the Black Speech was widely unfinished on purpose, fans and literary enthusiasts later filled the gaps in what is called the Neo-Black Speech, which probably is where these words mostly come from. Let's break it down:

• Ash-: This is an authentic Tolkien word, meaning "one" (as in Ash nazg / One Ring). 
• -dautas: Word for "day".

When combined, it means "one day", or "someday". 

• Vras-: An invented verb root meaning "to kill", first used by none other than Summoning on the track "Mirdautas Vras" from Oath Bound (2006).
• -ubat: A suffix that creates the future tense.
• -lat: Pronoun suffix of "you". 

If put all together... Well, you already read it. As far as I'm concerned, "ash" is the only original word by Tolkien in this phrase, but that doesn't make it any less authoritative. It is a fantastic name for a record label, even though most of the bands under its umbrella were not LotR-related. 

Continuing on the band's linguistic comprehension, triumvir refers to one of the three people forming a political alliance of power or public authority, a.k.a. the triumvirate (for example, in the Roman Republic, The First Triumvirate consisted of Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Licinius Crassus). If I'm right, Triumvir Foul were a trio for a short time in the mid '10s, but more members were included after 2016 until 2022: you may have heard of Max Bowman (Mortiferum, Caustic Wound), Tony Thomas (Witch Vomit, Torture Rack), Alex Poole (Chaos Moon, Krieg, many others). Therefore, it's unlikely they intended to be a trio as a support for the band name. "Foul" should be clear enough.

An Oath of Blood and Fire (Demo, 2014) 

The first evidence arrived (initially) as a four-track cassette titled An Oath of Blood and Fire, independently released in April 2014 in a mere 100 hand-numbered copies. The importance of the release became more apparent in retrospect, with Godz ov War Productions re-releasing it on 7" inch a year later. You could already hear the essential elements on it, slaying low-blow heavy death metal with riff muscle and ugly vocals across four tracks and 15 minutes of music. It is an interesting combination of the rancid Swedish strain contained in bands like Verminous and Repugnant in the early / mid '00s, and the doomy north American death metal of the '90s, as perfectly depicted in the different parts of the first two tracks "The Vacuum of Knots", and "Abhorrent Depths". 

Third track "Silence Continuum" uses the doom / death trick even more, and right at the point when you're going to think, "hey that's like a good Autopsy riff right here", a cover of "Embalmed" (track 10 from Severed Survival, a record we should all know by heart) arrives to finish the demo off. More than a convenient reference point, the cover served Triumvir Foul well at the time, even though the horizons would spread when the self-titled album would be released later on. An Oath of Blood and Fire is a truly great demo and initial recording of a band that proved to be quite competent, one that I completely slept on at the time, but caught up fast enough. I also saw some people complaining about the production on it back in the day... Sorry, what?

Triumvir Foul (2015, Blood Harvest / Vrasubatlat)

Triumvir Foul is the first essential stop for anyone approaching the band. Nine tracks, 42 minutes of chaos, originally recorded by R., Cedentibus, and Absque (currently of Eosphoros), the band treated its work with fairly more attention to make it as close to a complete statement as possible. The cover art was provided by the demigod Timo Ketola, something that to me has always been a standard for purchases / proofs of quality especially in death metal, and an unfathomable logo done by Samu Salovaara, its stark black-and-white, minimalist composure works like honey in a bear trap for fans of putrid death metal. 

It starts in anguish with a harsh, noisy introduction at the first two minutes of opening track "Labyrinthine - The Blood Serpent Unwinds". When monstrous growls, a rhythmic hi-hat repetition, and a couple of guitar notes step in, you're almost afraid of what you're going to experience. Triumvir Foul take their time to pick up the pace on this track, as they have studied Dead Congregation's two full-length tomes well, but by the fifth minute, we're fully on track. Distorted bass and guitar lines, primitive riffing, dense atmospherics and and a feeling of enormity and seriousness of a band that isn't willing to succumb to convenience.

Intentionally muddy, with structures that explore several directions, either crawling and buckling up or spewing in full force, the record is merciless: it had me recognizing the tone familiarity, yet the whole of it was particular, such that I felt like this is the Triumvir Foul sound, slowly establishing itself. Released the same year as Degial's Savage Mutiny, I would place these two next to each other on my shelf, even though this one allows itself for slower pacing too. As a track suggests, Triumvir Foul is indeed endless spiritual violence.

The band wants to appear diseased, half-deciphered and, in a way, like an archaeological discovery. Ketola's visual representation is nicely aligned with the buried occultism of the music, references to the three-horned serpents from the Mesopotamian / Akkadian mythology, and the overall appalling but well-written lyrics. I always prefer the faster over the slower sections in these albums, but here I almost didn't mind this, as Triumvir Foul's technical skills didn't overplay either. After all, these are the guys who made Cold of Ages... 

Highlights include "Profanation of the Wicked", "Hedonistic Prayer - the Abhorrent Depths of Perversion", and the closer "Tower of Bašmu - The Corruption of Flesh and Spirit". In fact, I think the album starts and ends amazingly. Buzz and supernatural destruction. 

Spiritual Bloodshed (2017, Vrasubatlat / Invictus Productions)

 

  

When listening to Spiritual Bloodshed, the listener who enjoyed the basics of Triumvir Foul inevitably comes across with its evolved sibling, or what the band hinted they could achieve before, now in full display. All weapons have been sharpened, from the delivery to the improvement on the arrangements (the only objection I would accept from someone referring to the debut), the aesthetics and the general quality of the tunes themselves. It's not transparent, it's not easily exposed to you, or in any way smoother. Instead, the hostility has increased, the ideas have been stretched even more, and the carnage done.

Once again, Ketola takes charge of the front cover art, which is of the same nature but also significantly clearer. The brightness of the image has gone up, as there are also hints of color, but only under the dry, dismal personality his drawings always had. The band has invested a lot more on the aforementioned Swedish death metal tendency, as the record has a lot more faster, more aggressive passages now than compared to the demo and first album. The instruments become physical thuds as the vocals emerge from the muddy atmosphere, at an almost trance-like delivery of primitive death metal.

 

After a similar harsh noise introduction as in Triumvir Foul, cutthroat guitars elaborate on stomping rhythms immediately at the tracks "Asphyxiation", "Serpentine Seed" and the powerful "Entranced by Filth". What the band employs much more on this record is the use of bizarre, fast solos on top of hammering drums and fast riffs, which has been voiced by countless death metal bands in the history of the genre, and of course could be tracked back to '80s Slayer. I punched the wall while listening to the thunderous "Disemboweled Pneuma", and noticed a bit of war metal playing on "Vomitous Worship in Rotting Tombs". In a parallel universe, half of that's a Morbid Triumph-era Antichrist Siege Machine track.

 

The album ends with the seven-minute long "Vrasubatlatian Rites" (a distant nod to "Immortal Rites", or at least that's what I'd like to believe). The building of this track in the first minute and something has a sort of static noise that made me think my headphones were malfunctioning at first, but hey, that's probably a compliment for the band at this stage. Melodies are slightly extended here poking at filthy disso-death or even black metal, the solos are in place, and the final minutes lie in a pure harsh noise wasteland. Sometimes you may think you're weird for liking this music, well imagine those who composed it.

Urine of Abomination (EP, 2019)

Going into this article, the Urine of Abomination EP was the one I had listened to the least from the band, even including An Oath of Blood and Fire. When it was put out, I still hadn't fully embraced the Triumvir Foul plague, as it was last album that built my interest for the band and restored my view on their earlier material too. Superstition had a place in my 2019 end year list, but this EP was nowhere to be found at its equivalent post. What makes us human is the capacity for re-thinking.

Concerned with the "humiliation and destruction of the godhead", and while it's more textually limited (four tracks with the same title but numbered I - IV), it may be the most openly explicit release of Triumvir Foul. It's better that you don't look too long at the cover either, which is as direct as the EP's title suggests, yet again the physicality of the music was meant to be on the artwork too. I found less groundbreaking black / death metal than what the band was doing in their two full-length albums, which was still grime-covered, lo-fi and grotesque in its entirety. 

The most notable musical alteration used here is the more distinct sections of harsh noise electronics. They now occupy distinct moments in between the different parts of the tracks, not blurring into them or serving as intro / outro paths to the rest of the album. Imagine listening to Full of Hell, but when the metal starts, it's bestial death metal instead of grind. On the CD edition released by Invictus Productions, the entire An Oath of Blood and Fire demo was included as bonus material, in case collectors missed it the first time. Decent decision to re-document Triumvir Foul's developmental period.

Onslaught to Seraphim (2022, Vrasubatlat / Invictus Productions)

Currently, this release is featured among my favorite death metal albums of the current decade (I know you can't wait for that post on New Year's Eve, 2029). Also, there already is a 4 out of 5 short review uploaded in 2022, when I listened to it at release date. As an unrelated note, I have sometimes heard actors mention that they have a hard time watching themselves in their first movies — I feel the same about reading old posts. Onslaught to Seraphim is Triumvir Foul's third and final record, concluding the project with in glory, fully anointed in the filth of the swamp they created. We should wrap up here already.

Stepping out of the production mud first, the title also works so well. The Seraphim, traditionally the highest order of angels in Christian theology, become the symbolic target of the band's attack. Triumvir Foul aim for that inverted religious imagery for a final stand against it, conceptually linking the record with their self-titled debut. I don't consider it a trilogy, yet a focus on an anti-celestial narrative and an evolution from a fearful, deity-dominated world into a rebellion and destruction of that order, may be recognized across the three records.

Ironically, the project's path ended just at the moment of their strongest musical form, adding up all the experience and positive elements of their back catalog into one forceful record. Clarity of sound is achieved, individual components are followed more easily, the filth is at the forefront, all instruments remain massive, either at the doom or the pure death metal patterns. If one thought of their previous material as a bit all over the place, this here is at Triumvir Foul's maximum focus. Onslaught to Seraphim is triumphant, reinforced in aesthetics, and celebratory of the annihilation it causes.

Even more parallels can be drawn from old (Angelcorpse, Morbid Angel) or young (like Fossilization, Phrenelith, Grave Miasma) bands of the old-school death metal scene, if there's any point in naming it like that. The few shorter tracks like "Flesh Diocese" and "Infected Virtue" are barbarous, while slower sections clearly bring Incantation in mind (e.g. second part of "Serpents' Gnash of War", or "Domini Befallen (To Doom)", a highlight track with excruciating vocals that go near Spectral Voice). At the top and right above, for me are "Bašmu Enthralled, Horned Creations" and the title track. They have everything. 

For me, Onslaught to Seraphim is both the ideal endpoint and best place to start, if you want to get familiar with Triumvir Foul, especially if the production of the earlier records proves difficult to the ear at first. Small discography, but nothing is disposable, and above all, no unnecessary attempts to sound relevant. Just a few records of diseased death metal that got better by the year, then disappearing before there was any time for dilution. Thematically connected, and reaching its climax with the last record, the band set the stage and described the end of the world within these eight years of activity.

Selected affiliated releases:

A few of the many notable releases within the ecosystem that Triumvir Foul thrived, some of them ongoing. I can never not include Ash Borer in this though.

• Ablazen Winds - Kingsblood (EP, 2026)
• Ash Borer - Cold of Ages (2012)
• Dagger Lust - Siege Bondage Adverse to the Godhead (2018)
• Excarnated Entity - Mass Grave Horizon (2023) 
• Urzeit - Anmoksha (2016)
• Utzalu - The Loins of Repentance (2017) 
• Uškumgallu - Rotten Limbs in Dreams of Blood (2016)

 

All Shades of Silence

I was listening to Katharsis again recently and passed by their short split release with Antaeus, released in 2009 and right before the end of the band’s glorious journey in black metal. It was out in February that year, a few months prior to the amazing final EP, Fourth Reich, when the curtains dropped for one of the genre’s most hard-hitting entities at the time. 

A lot has already been written about the main albums of their discography, as well as more generally when writing related articles, which are all focused on full-length releases of bands or movements at certain time periods. I’ve done so myself as well, intimidated by the sheer amount of material out there if you consider every EP, demo or split that gets pressed today. 

Nevertheless, a few split releases always stand out over the years. I tried to limit myself to cases of just two featured bands, not more, and also looked at duration lengths similar with those of a full-length, at least 25 - 30 minutes or more. This is a crude listing of the quickest examples of this category that came to mind, and I’m sure there’s so many that could be added. Let’s get into it.

Arckanum & Svartsyn - Kaos svarta mar / Skinning the Lambs

Summer 2004, Carnal Records

I’ve talked about both these artists in the past, as I always feel the don’t get nearly the recognition and they deserve. Look at how many gems remain hidden in their back catalogs! 

At the time of release, Arckanum were going through a decade-long gap between full-length albums from Kampen (1998) in what would prove to be a later series of masterpieces in the late ‘00s, in the form of Antikosmos in 2008, and of course, ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ in 2009. 

Ornias of Svartsyn was already blackened by the gunpowder of Destruction of Man (2003), and was fueling his next assault that would follow a year later, Bloodline. A really great moment for a masterful, groundbreaking split, right?

How well these two bands fit in the same release, as well as how striking the memorability of the tracks they included in it, is a black metal wonder. The split feels archaic, authentically dark, and full of top-notch frostbitten melodies that make impossible to not be amazed by if you’re into black metal.

I appreciate the direct first track by Arckanum, as well as his shamanistic side in moments of “Ætergap”, “Frana” and “Spitælsker”. Start the whole split from the track “Skinning the Lambs” by Svartsyn, if you want a sample of peak riff work, structure and echoed devilish vocals. 

The middle-paced tempo on "Blåkullaförbannelsen" is haunting, and both "A Night Created by the Shadows" and "Furnace in Purgatory" are awesome, explosive tracks. You know what they say: if you like this, you like this genre, if not, then you don’t.

 

Drudkh & Paysage d'Hiver - Somewhere Sadness Wanders / Schnee (IV)

Summer 2017, Season of Mist Underground Activists 

 

In my article about Paysage d'Hiver's compilation Schnee (which I own original, a marvelous piece of art), I referred to their split with Drudkh as "a breathtaking mini-album also for a different post". 

 

Firstly, it only took six years for that post to arrive, and secondly, I'm not sure why I called it a "mini-album", since this split is a good 40 minutes in duration. Long for full-length / split standards, but maybe a common day at the office for the specific artists included.

 

Drudkh's side includes two tracks of evocative atmospheric black metal with pristine sound, inspired by and borrowing their lyrics from Ukrainian poems, as the band has done at different occasions in the past. Their classic guitar charge is here, especially shining through the great riffs of the second piece, "The Night Walks Towards Her Throne". 

 

The introductory "All Shades of Silence" includes stripped down ambient that cuts the track in half, separating the composition into distinct sections. For the likes of Drudkh, there's considerable outward-driven energy into these tunes, which is a stark difference compared to the 20-minute track of icy black metal that follows.

 

Paysage d'Hiver does what it always does, laying down long-form ambient black metal textures of the eternal winter in this piece. Repetitive even for the project's standards, it slowly grows into something more grandiose as the composition progresses, but it never turns its back on the outmost austere identity of Wintherr. If you let this play and close your eyes, it somehow absorbs its surroundings and you become one with it.

Unlike Arckanum and Svartsyn, this collaboration would have been harder to see coming, yet I imagine it happened after internal communication and respect of the two sides towards each other. I'm drawn to these sounds as much as the average man - isn't this artistic acumen recognized everywhere?

 

Co-released with Kunsthall Produktionen. While you're here, check out a recent, relevant post about Nordlicht.

 

Pan-Amerikan Native Front & Kommodus - Immortal Ceremonies

Spring 2021, Goatowarex

 

There are many options I could choose from this group of bands, but I'm going with the one I'm most familiar with. This is specifically due to the involvement of Pan-Amerikan Native Front, a project whose full length albums are held in quite a high regard on Arson Cafe.

 

Immortal Ceremonies is a partnership between the aforementioned and the infamous project Kommodus, which I discovered with the demo An Imperial Sun Rises in 2019, and have loved ever since. Both names have excellent recording threads so far, and have managed to maintain a sort of contained audience in the underground. 

 

A middle-paced, epic riff starts on the first track, "Sacrifices To Jupiter", that immediately recalls of Rotting Christ (yes), but quickly gets dragged in the American indigenous mud, with the guaranteed personal touch of Lepidus Plague himself. Variation of tempos, ancient black metal guitar riffs alongside a hostile vocal reverberation, including several compositional twitches to make this material even more clearly above average.

 

My favorite track here is "To Wrestle With Angels", because it combines Kommodus' vision all the more evidently. Usage of acoustics, distorted unique melodies from the characteristic middle section halt towards the glorious end of the track, as well as the main, harsher but always melodic guitar lines, it somehow manages to sound aggressive and pained at the same time.

Pan-Amerikan Native Front start off with ringing bells and a military-paced track "Kiva Flames of Rebellion", then unfold further on "Hasan'owane Breathe of Remonstration". It's an anti-Christian track with lyrics taken from the speech of Sagoyewatha, a.k.a. The Red Jacket, in 1805 - remonstration meaning a forceful expression of opposition.

Amazing acoustic guitars end the split at its final track, "Washani Stones of Resurrection", another anti-colonial piece with great references to learn, especially for one unaware of this history. Doesn't it blend marvelously with such high quality of black metal?

 

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A few more for your ears only: 

 

These are five more splits that I considered, and would perfectly fit, for this article. I don't want to say much about neither of these, in case we discuss them later on, somewhere in the next six years again. 

• Antediluvian & Adversarial - Initiated in Impiety as Mysteries (2012) | Would this count as a death metal release, for a change?
• Ash Borer & Fell Voices (2010) | Quintessential recording right at the time of bloom of Cascadian black metal, by two of its most proficient projects.
• Moonblood & Deathspell Omega - Sob a Lua do Bode / Demoniac Vengeance (2000) | The first that came to mind, but I've already talked about it.
• Necromantia & Varathron - The Black Arts / The Everlasting Sins (1992) | The best among the classics, and that comes from someone who's more into the Scandinavian than the Greek sound.
• Revenant Marquis & Lamp of Murmuur (2020) | Raw black metal, another solid take by fresh blood infidels.

The Scythe and the Harvest

Discovering old obscure releases with little or no recognition is a great past time of mine. As much as I like to boast about how much of this genre I've listened to, records always skip through the cracks, not to mention all the demos and EPs that I'm still, after all these years, clueless of. 

Furthermore, older releases also usually have that sound, you know what I'm talking about. As of today, we're looking at the first and only record by Athenian black metal band Mournblade, self-titled and originally released through Kyrck Productions & Armour in 2001. Actually, I'd like to write about that label separately one day (Wild Rags is another case of a brooding article) because of its approach and quality. 

This short-lived project featured a person named Arioch on vocals, not the Swedish frontman of Marduk but still someone that I found no information on, then Merkaal (Order of the Ebon Hand, and at the time, active on Nocternity too) on bass / guitars and vocals too. 

The drumming, plus keyboards, was done by Lethe, a.k.a. Akis Kapranos, a known name in Greece for his involvement as a writer at Metal Hammer, his general film criticism and also at the time of Mournblade, member of Order of the Ebon Hand and Septicflesh, among others. 

Lastly, additional guitars were handled by Pavlos Houliaras, later active with death metal / grindcore band Slavebreed. A charming line-up for sure, mainly driven by Order of the Ebon Hand / Nocternity members, essentially people heavily involved in the Greek black metal scene at the time. 

"All the enslaved nations of the East
are coming down upon, against few men"

A Tolkien influence is evident from Mournblade's album cover, depicting a figure that I would guess is Melkor, and when looking at the track named "Of Melkor and Ungolianthe", it could be that the rest of the blackened figure might be the giant spider. 

A magnificent artwork if you ask me, perfect for the time of its release and the nostalgic warmth it conveys, which by the way, has just been re-pressed on vinyl through His Wounds. Get one while you can. 

One would think that Mournblade is a purely Lord of the Rings-inspired record, but there are several different topics the band touched upon with the record, other than our favorite fantasy writer. A few epic, warlike tunes are included, like the glorious opener "The scythe and the Harvest", the clear reference to the battle of Thermopylae on "300", and"Aries", in what I believe is a reference to the battering ram, not the God of War Ares or the constellation (?).

There are some Greek lyrics to be found in these tracks, but there's also a track title, in Greek, "Ο αιώνιος πρόμαχος" = the eternal outpost, of the same content. Another clear reference is "On the Stone of Erech", which you already know, right? I am not sure if the second track, "White Wolf", combined with its lyrics, is linked to Elric of Melniboné (by Michael Moorcock) before you freak out about the choice of color. 

In total, there is a bunch of interesting themes in the album, despite looking like a stricter conceptual bundle at first, and it could have perfectly worked as one. But hey, all this text and I almost forgot to talk about the music!

"The ground tremors
And hands stripped from their flesh"

Mournblade's an excellent mixture indie pop and alternative electronica rooted in the late '90s... Aha, no! You'll get a superb production of old-school black metal that builds melody and atmosphere through  potent guitar riffs, generous fast-paced blast beat drumming in the vein of the Scandinavian winter whistling winds, echoed distant vocals and a great flow and variety of well-thought ideas put on paper / recorder.

Hard-hitting and inspired by the faster, more intense Norse contemporaries of the genre, indulging in the frosty riff work of bands from the other side of the continent, with a raw but powerful sound and all the expected aggression to back up its thematics.

In that way, Mournblade is not the typical Greek black metal album and most likely, it was not intended to be one, as it's more possible that it was composed as a homage to the northern sound, executed by people fascinated by it under a side project, rather than the main musical activities they had then. 

Other bands have also engaged in this practice throughout the years, but the reason this record managed to stay with me when I first discovered it was the sense of wonder I felt around the project itself. 

Also, there's not a bad moment here: amazing middle-paced melodies on "Aries!", Norsecore hack-and-slash on the opener, "White Wolf" and "Ο αιώνιος πρόμαχος" (including a neat clean vocal part), well-rounded and compositional visions on both "On the Stone of Erech" and the grandiose "300", dungeon synth on the last track... Textbook perfection.

It does not transcend the parent records that it praises, but that's beside the point. Who managed to do that anyway? The vocal performance deserves a mention, at times reaching the higher, more painful levels of screaming as you could almost hear the voice break.

This is the back cover of the LP re-press, wonderful:

 

Bonus mention: Order of the Ebon Hand & Macabre Omen - Two Years Standing Proud in Valhalla... 

In 2006, Order of the Ebon Hand connected with Macabre Omen, one of the best black metal bands from Greece in history, for a short split release as a tribute to the passing of Quorthon. 

 

The split had two tracks, one from each band, both Bathory cover songs: " Through Blood by Thunder", and "A Fine Day to Die". As much as I would have preferred just another pick than the latter, just because of how popular it is (and deserving, an absolute peak of a metal track), these recordings sound amazing.

 

The mini-release was put on 7" vinyl through the Cypriot label Necroterror Records, active around that time yet I haven't heard from them in a long time. 

 

Macabre Omen would continue with another split release of the same kind next year, "Three Years...", that time with a Canadian band named Thesyre. Unfortunately, I know nothing about it. 

 

But, what I know is that Macabre Omen's obsession with Bathory, has made it the project that it became. Gods of War - At War!

 

Lo-fi lowlife - D. 7

Continuing a series of short playlists started about seven years ago. 

Back then a solo venture, now as a sequence of tracks discussed within a close circle, actively brainstorming the next selection while the music plays. Void of strict genre direction.

No links, imagine this given to you in secret in an old, folded piece of paper. Does it even mean anything, or is it just words?

 

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Assault on the inner life 

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Omegavortex - Mutilation Paradise
Temple Nightside - Adrift in Sepulchral Entropy
Azarath - Sign of Apophis
Witchburner - Apocalyptic Visions
Cadaveric Incubator - Through the Flesh
Dismember - Under a Blood Red Sky
Heresiarch - Swarming Blight
Ascended Dead - Nexus of the Black Flame
Ebony Pendant - Conjuration of Sophistry Exalted (Being of Oblivion's Maw)
Saidan - Kanashimi
Ripped to Shreds - Righteous Fist to the Teeth of the Wicked

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Previous lowlists found here.

Proclamation - Nether Tombs of Abaddon (2012) Review

The final album by the Spanish war metal horde didn't diverge even to the slightest from delivering exactly what was expected, and exactly at the same manner: bestial chaos in reverb and echo. As daring this style inherently is, Proclamation had decide to fully compromise to its definition parameters with a record that sounded like their previous works, sounded like well-known war metal, focused on efficient simplicity and primitive aggression you already know of. 

It's hard to tell tracks apart, as they all move at the same fast-tempos and feature a thick, noisy production that turns the guitars into a layered sound rather than a more noticeable aspect. The few riffs and solos that one can notice are great, yet the overall frantic attitude of the record is executed well, but repeated to exhaustion not just by Proclamation, but by the whole of this genre. A ten-track runtime feels a bit tedious, it relies too heavily on washed-out reverb and sits well as a product of a stale, yet clear-cut formula. Fans of black / death metal are right to worship this band, especially as one of the voices of its more recent status and rebirth 15 years after the classics of the '90s, but that's about it. Combined with the never-failing, red-and-white blasphemous cover art, the purposeful murk and raw noise in visuals and music, Proclamation made just another standard war metal album, before breaking up a year later. Being active for a decade (2003 to 2013), the band was infamous in the '00s inside that niche's circles, and the record proves why. 

It works like a charm, given that you already are a fan and have the appetite for this specific sound. I wouldn't be able to say which Proclamation album I prefer even if my life depended on it, and despite their shortcomings whenever I listen to them again, I somehow always suggest them around for a listen. A mediocre yet acceptable blast of underground chaos.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5