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?

 

---

 

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!

 

Notes on: Thy Serpent

As stars have come old

Finland has always had a certain affection towards raw, blasphemous black metal, from its early days until today. Bands like Archgoat, Barathrum, Beherit and Impaled Nazarene were central protagonists during the second wave in the 90's, and a generation of new bands of the same origins has surfaced the last couple of decades, making their branch of the genre an equivalent of the drunkard uncle that crushes and ruins the Christmas family dinner. Of course, artists from there are also capable of delicate, beautiful music (all the symphonic black metal, melodic death metal, symphonic metal and rock, with bands of global caliber) and is one of the areas with the richest heavy metal culture on the planet.

World Yet Known to Man - Blood Incantation

The first encounter with Blood Incantation was through their first EP Interdimensional Extinction, in 2015. This mini-release summarized the work of the band up to that point, re-working on compositions from their earlier demo tapes, (even though the infamous untitled rehearsal that would later become "The Giza Power Plant" is not present here), so it was the most complete effort at this given time. Popularity hadn't exploded yet and still as Blood Incantation was lurking in the underground, the main discussion was if it is a project honoring veteran entities like Demilich or Timeghoul, or it follows a direction of its own. Musical comparisons between these names are hardly insubstantial, but you can tell of the members' influences  even by looking the 2014 demo Astral Spells artwork, side by side with the tape art of Regurgitation of Blood, from 1991. I always found some distant Slugathor references to their music apart from the more obvious aforementioned bands, yet by now they have expanded their palette significantly.  

Having said this, I didn't actually know what to expect before listening to Interdimensional Extinction as I didn't know any of this information yet. The unreadable logo drew my attention, as well as the black / white space related artwork, which showed Blood Incantation's lyrical themes and made it even more interesting. At the same time, this EP played alongside Skelethal's Interstallar Knowledge of the Purple Entity EP, released just a year before, so these two conceptual releases helped each other to my positive stance towards such topics in general. Needless to point out that all the shenanigans regarding lyrics, artworks or aesthetics, can not really save an album if it has mediocre material, which is why Interdimensional Extinction sky rocketed to the top for me on that year as one of the best EPs of 2015. Blood Incantation's technical mastery becomes apparent immediately, as the complex guitars unfold. The riffs are heavy. The drums are perfectly played. The solos hold meaning. Each track is so well made, it leaves the listener scratching their head by trying to equate it with other death metal bands of its time. Interdimensional Extinction is not simply the first Blood Incantation release of bigger magnitude, it isn't just some old tracks re-recorded, it was the band's statement to try and step out of their influences' shadows and grow on their own. The EP features flawless material, the first three out of four tracks contain exceptional death metal that doesn't limit itself to the term, with potency and excellent flow. Slightly more abstract jamming takes place in the final tune "Subterranean Aeon", which has only a handful of lyrics. Such playing would later become a vital part in Blood Incantation's body of work. 

With this momentum, the next step of a band can prove crucial in deciding its fate and especially in this case when Blood Incantation are battling the waves of old school death metal fans grumbling about originality. A split with Spectral Voice, a brother band sharing almost all members, featuring one of their older tracks didn't spare clear signs on their intentions and what would be the following move. It look less than a year to the release of the debut full length album Starspawn, through Dark Descent Records, who had supported them with Interdimensional Extinction as well. Once again with prolific artwork (this time by Don Dixon), with some color addition and completely new compositions, Starspawn was the turning point that could decide whether the community would care about Blood Incantation at all after this release. Before going into a record, you spend some time looking at the tracks, their duration, the titles and everything around the listening itself. I thought a risk had already been taken when I saw a thirteen minute long track as the first in the album, and the shorter ones actually towards the end. From what countless metal bands have been doing so far, this is already pretty counter intuitive. 

And this is one of the legs the not impressed death metal fans stand on, among other things. Even if I am not one of them, such tracklists being called weak is a frequent argument against Blood Incantation, as well as the fact that each album "doesn't feature enough music". This would be true if one assumes that interludes and instrumental moments are only filler parts of a death metal record, but modern bands have finally arrived to burst that bubble with compensating brutality with atmosphere, something that has been not simply missing, but was an unknown concept in the vast majority of albums out there. The comfort in which Blood Incantation dances between more fluid, progressive parts with no vocals, to full-on heaviness, is remarkable and one of its kind at the time period it's being made. As much of a brilliant band Timeghoul were in the early - mid 90's, the same brilliance flows in the veins of Blood Incantation in the 21st century. And yes, Starspawn is breathtaking. All the artistic edges of the band are glorified in every second of this record, the stellar music is overwhelming in what should be one of the most recognized death metal moments of its decade, if it wasn't for the band's second full length that came out three years later.

Clearly Starspawn deserves a lot of replays, and even after that, it does not get boring. In 2016, the scene now started taking Blood Incantation more seriously, as they got mad promotion from all around, the people who didn't totally get the fuss were wondering more and more. It's in 2019 when the real storm hits. The band, after having spent three years of strenuous song writing, with some rehearsals for songs taking up months, releases their second full length album Hidden History of the Human Race. The topics of alien life, space and technology, through well-written lyrics, are crystal clear and a landmark for Blood Incantation by now. Another piece of art by Bruce Pennington is used, this time the cover of the book Space, Time and Nathaniel by Brian Aldiss. While a more obscure Canadian brutal death metal band named Agony, had used the same art for their debut Apocalyptic Dawning (another worthy record for you to listen to by the way), Blood Incantation took proper rights for usage of the art. "The Giza Power Plant" is the only old composition (from ~2013), and the other three tracks, including a mammoth eighteen minute piece "Awakening from the Dream of Existence to the Multidimensional Nature of Our Reality (Mirror of the Soul)", are brand new.

Hidden History of the Human Race features another instrumental track, where the former jamming tendencies have grown out of death metal into a mixture of psychedelic / post / death metal that depicts the band's clear forward thinking character. Demilich's own Antti Boman does feature vocals here, just to confirm that there are no artistic gaps between these bands. The opener "Slave Species of the Gods" is insanely catchy, overly aggressive and hammers top-notch riffing from the band, it's a memorable future classic track to characterize Blood Incantation and an immediate attention catcher, in other words the ideal opener. Of course, the last track, in all its duration, makes up for the wildest experience you can get from them. The record splashed all over the metal media and not only, got extreme levels of coverage, and history has already been made. Such a natural and coherent group, whose live shows sound even better than the captivating studio sound, whose members also have several side-projects with remarkable material, can't hold back the truth about how much talent and potential these individuals have. Hidden History of the Human Race is Blood Incantation's establishing mark and a point of discussion for many years to come.

I don't know if they took their album name from the Cremo / Thompson book with the same title, released in 1999, but combined with the cover art, and then the colossal music with all its directional branches, constitutes to this masterpiece, that not everyone has to understand necessarily. All of their material are on regular repeat, nothing has grown old and there have been insanely good moments since day one. It has now been a bit quiet again in the Blood Incantation camp, I'm wondering if the next work of the band is being prepared as we speak. It is a band that has sky rocketed to the top, caused polarization on the way, but with undeniably high level and competent musicianship, the slightest activity from now on will cause the death metal scene to stir again. 

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Five albums released on October 16th

A blog was born in mid October, 2012, but this is not that kind of anniversary I'm referring to right now. On the otherwise quite unimportant date of October 16 happened a far less glamorous event, and that was of course, that it was the day when I was born. I don't know if you have ever wondering what was going on in the music world during the time that you arrived in this life, or important related events on that date etc.., and maybe this might be too much of an overkill even for listening nerds to keep track of. And while the world was jamming off "I'll Make Love to You" by Boys II Men during October of 1994, the album that gave me happiness from that month is that Impaled Nazarene's Suomi Finland Perkele was actually released on the 16th. And by the time I was two days old, and also mature enough for it, Stoner Witch by the Melvins came out. What a week!

While there are several general history websites that report events on a certain date, and also some regarding music only, it's not as clear to find such insight for underground scenes like extreme metal. I scanned through (with the help of one and only archival website for the music we love) four decades, from 1980 until today and gathered the most notable full lengths albums for myself, covering material from late Thin Lizzy albums to Throane's latest EP Une Balle Dans Le Pied, which was released this morning. Just the process of going through all these records gives a good grip on something that is important only to you personally, so I hope this post works not so much to spread music knowledge but as an idea to other list obsessed fans of music, or movies, or whatever you're into.

Adept of an Ancient Art - Nocternity

I can’t be certain if this is the case, but I have a feeling Nocternity have always stood a bit further away from the rest of the Greek black metal scene, despite having a history of more than twenty years now and material since the late 90’s. Maybe it’s because of the fact that as a band, they don’t follow the standard recipe the country’s driven black metal style (not in music and also, not in the lyrics) that has been established since the second wave, but they drew their influences from other areas in more central and northern Europe, especially the Norwegian scene. The project is comprised mainly by Khal Drogo (who chose this nickname way before Game of Thrones came out on TV), and Merkaal, who has also been involved in Order of the Ebon Hand.

The path to Katharsis

Formed in 1994, Katharsis from Saxony came to life at a time when the black metal scene was still growing in Germany, and only a handful of bands had released a full length album (namely, the infamous Ungod and Bethlehem debuts in 1993 and 1994 respectively, as well as Dawnfall and Lvx Occulta). During their early years, they had some small line-up changes mainly keeping two or three members at the time, yet Scorn and Drakh were the two people mainly behind all the music of Katharsis from the beginning to the end of the project. Notably, the band was one of the first two release a record with a label that was put together in France at the early 00’s and would later grow to be one of the most admired labels of the whole scene.

Of course, talking about Norma Evangelium Diaboli, which during the year of 2003 had some of their first releases: Watain’s Casus Luciferi, Funeral Mist’s Salvation and Kruzifixxion by Katharsis. The band built its fame by maintaining a rather unrelenting and stiff-necked style, and while their discography is by no means perfect, getting into their music couldn’t be characterized as easy business and there’s a lot of pure quality to be missed out from someone who decides to discard them during a superficial listen. Katharsis have, among numerous mini-releases, three (or four…) full lengths, during a time of thirteen years, between 1996 and 2009.

Early years 1996 – 1999: The first demo Terror, Storm and Darkest Arts came around naturally clamorous in 1996, at a time when the band hadn’t formed its sound yet. The songs are short, influenced from the colder side of the Norwegian scene, the mix is not the same in all of them and it generally makes a good case of a sloppy but spirited mini-album. Things already started falling into place with the second and third demo (Into Endless Chaos in 1997, and The Red Eye of Wrath in 1998), where the destructive nature of the band started rising towards the surface. 

It’s a more consistent effort than Terror… and more violent as well, even though it maintains a bathroom production as many black metal demos at the time. “Thornkings” is a first notable hint of the potential of Katharsis, they experiment with middle speeds in “Ashes”, as well as furious hitters like “Hellstorm”. There are several weak points in their compositions as the band still needed some work on their skills, but the energy is all there even from the first recordings. On the 1999 rehearsal, you can listen to them cover Black Magic by Slayer (listen mainly the end of the song) and Horus Aggressor by Helhammer, and then comes one of the better recorded pieces up to that time, “Murder in the Halls of Heaven”. Initially there was a twenty-five second noise in the debut demo with the same title, but in that rehearsal they jammed some more and made it into a two minute song. Plus, the last track “Nazarene (Into the Flame)” was written during a day the guys were listening to Abruptum. From the two splits of that era, the one with Deathcult (Scorn’s side project) basically sums up the same songs from the first demo of each band, except a couple of new recordings by Katharsis which also can be skipped, yet their side at the split with Nhaavah is definitely worth it for a meticulous listener of this band. Up to this point, Katharsis had shown their good signs with a few notable demos, but they wouldn’t stick into memory with just that, so the next step was vital.

2000 – release of the debut, 666: Neatly named. Katharsis always maintained one lyrical theme, strongly focused on satanism, and the choice of the title 666 for their debut put a stamp on that fact but at the same time, could confuse a stricter part of the scene, which would have been curious to see the band’s validity. The band crushes all doubt with the first track “666 (Hohelied Der Wiedererweckung)”, one of their best when looking back to their whole discography. The sound is razor-sharp, instruments and high-pitched vocals are screeching alike. The guitar riffs are insane, maybe the most interesting in that particular album, the Darkthrone vein is there but Katharsis hammer it down their own way, which is brilliant. 666 starts the best way possible, highlights can be found in “The Black Grail” and “Nazarene – Into the Flame”, the second time the band uses the same title for a track, but now it much much improved from what was on the 99’ rehearsal, not only the black metal but the noise / ambient in its introduction. A lost hybrid of Panzer Division-era Marduk and Urgehal is played in “Raped By Demons / Massacrament” and the shorterst track in 666, “Thy Horror”, holds a strong Norwegian scent, in between Ulver’s Nattens Madrigal and the Darkthrone / Gorgoroth debuts. It is not the most original album ever, but their passion and directness is soaring, making it recognizable and wholly pleasing. Extra bonus should be given to the above average drumming, as well as the lyrics (… I bathe in flames, eternal journey – into the cauldrons, history melted…), some of the best texts that could be found in black metal at the time and still today. It contains exactly the lyrics a great record of its kind would have, sincerely dark and chaotic (don’t forget that Scorn has contributed with lyrics to Watain’s Casus Luciferi). 666’s cover is a bit confusing and what it’s showing is not totally clear, there was some editing done but the black / white aesthetics is apparent, and finally Katharsis had found their own logo. This release was a great beginning for the band, one of the albums of that decade you have to listen to, and a good indication overall to see if someone actually likes this music, is to see if they appreciate this record. With this move and by taking advantage of the momentum the group had from their series of demos, they established their name in the underground.

Split releases during 2001 – 2002: A couple of years just before their second full length, Katharsis released a couple of splits with other bands from Sombre Records, the German black metal label that had released their debut as well. There’s a four-way split with Svest, Warloghe and Black Witchery, where the band contributed with a track they had written much earlier, “Lacerating the Angels”, which was originally included in their first demo Terror, Storm and Darkest Arts. In case you liked that track from the demo, this is the chance to listen to it with a slightly better production. I don’t see why they would release a separate split in 2002 with Black Witchery only, a generally worthless band in my opinion, yet the tracks in both sides are bearable. Even less material is on the mini-split with Moonblood, released a year before in 2001, not so much for the music (both sides have standard material from each artist) but for the fact that it exists. Other than the rehearsals or the splits, Katharsis took part in a compilation called Black Metal Blitzkrieg in 2001 with a number of amazing bands, so if you want to listen to early Deathspell Omega, underground mammoths like Clandestine Blaze, Altar of Perversion, or the Finnish unsung heroes Musta Surma, this VA is for you. Katharsis offer a three-minute relentless track “Extermination”, which is repetitive, and features highlights in the vocals, but still this whole compilation works as a lesson for the genre at the same time.

2003 – Kruzifixxion: The band’s second full length marked their collaboration with then new label Norma Evangelium Diaboli, a follow-up with some reasonable expectations, after a fine debut. However, the record aches at a lot of different sections, not only in the compositions themselves, but mainly in the production. Katharsis had a harsh sound to begin with, but in Kruzifixxion something that I will never know went painfully wrong with the mixing and this can be heard from the first seconds of the first track “The Last Wound”. Hi-hats are too high, toms sound too weak, there is almost no audible bass, the vocals sound damaged, giving out an idea as if this was never properly worked on to produce a more appropriate sound. This goes on for the whole of the record and makes the tracks hard to concentrate on, tracks that otherwise have some legit moments here and there. As the album progresses, the ear gets used to the filthiness and when looking behind this thick curtain of noise, there’s a portion of it that one would enjoy, for example in the speeds of the last track “Infernal Solar Vortex” or some guitar lines in “Painlike Paradise”. The longest track “Bloodstain the Temple Stones” is the weakest, and it opens with a spooky introduction as if from an 80’s horror movie, a bit of an understatement compared with the significantly dimmer experimentation they had tried during their demo years, before introducing “Luziferion”, just a short filler. Kruzifixxion presents material from the band that is not totally focused, and whatever interesting play is crushed by the record’s problematic production. Frankly, the best thing here is the magnificent (and by now, iconic in black metal cycles) album cover, which I enjoy staring at as if it’s the first time, every time.

2006 – VvorldVVithoutEnd: Not much happened the three years prior to VvorldVVithoutEnd, which might explain the big leap forward Katharsis achieved with it. It is the longest album they have ever released, clocking up to fifty two minutes, a result of a couple of compositions being significantly longer (last track lasts 16 minutes). The band has fixed absolutely everything with their production as if it was the first time they entered an actual studio, offering a blistering and potent sound that finally glorifies their material. The tracks themselves are more aggressive, the intensity never drops, the vocals rule, they no longer live completely under the shade of their Norwegian influences and have crafted this brilliant record as a cleansing to themselves and the audience. The frenetic guitar lines in “Eden Below”, “Ascent from Ghoulgotha”, the scourging monotonous parts of “VVytchdance”, the thunderous high-pitched vocals throughout, is exactly what can make someone fall for the merit of this band. Once again, they chose to write a very short song “Kosmik Sacrifice”, but this time the madness is conveyed successfully, and the final, self-titled track is a chapter on its own. The best Katharsis guitar work up to this point, during a monstrous piece that could stand alone above the rest, totally delivering and closing this remarkable record. VvorldVVithoutEnd saved the day and the band, it put them back on track and it was now bound for them to have a respected place within black metal forever.

2009 – split with Antaeus and final EP: In my head, this was the year Katharsis released their best music, but it was also when they disappeared from the scene. A split was arranged with another great band from Norma Evangelium’s roster, Antaeus, who had also released a noteworthy album three years earlier, Blood Libels. Both these artists contribute with one song in the split, Katharsis’ side is a 9 minute long one named “Black Lust” and is as furious as you would think if you had been following so far.  It opens with chants and praising to the Dark One, and all the tricks of their trade are showcased again, especially the great vocal work as well as memorable and epic riffing throughout the whole track.

It has the ideal sound for the band, not clean and not noisy, but in the balance. It’s nine minutes of high speed playing with a slight climactic turn towards the end, yet this smaller detail of their music is more present in their last EP, Fourth Reich. While it is 45 minutes long and could have been a full length, it was released as an EP, yet the listener should not be confused and think it is a mini-release. Katharsis return with another beautiful beyond words artwork, to begin with. Their production is not polished but taken care of, it’s audible and embraces the hostility of the band. Every aspect of the release is on point, as if they had been exercising for all their active years to compose these tracks. Fourth Reich features the personal, angry sound of Katharsis, with all the golden bits and bytes of their discography aligned. From the cover, to the production, to the level of the tunes, and the vocals, they didn’t simply hit the mark, they burned it down. The opener “So Nail the Hearts”, a 13 minute opus, is the best track they have ever written in my opinion, for the majestic lyrics and the nail-biting, fierce ending part that I have hardly come across in any band, and that’s just the first track. “Eucharistik Funereal” and “Reckoning” offer an endless stream of sharp riffs and melodic solos that are introduced in the perfect balance (in “Sinn Koronation”), while the heaviness of the band is not missing from any moment. Their meddling with dark ambient / instrumental tracks has reached its maximum capacity as well, with a fine interlude “Emeralde Graves” featuring layers of minimalistic keys that draw slight influence from dungeon synth. The album should be listened to whole, not a single song skipped, as all of the content of Fourth Reich is top-notch black metal, and not only because of the music but for everything around it too.

Katharsis split up at some point after this EP, and as far as I am aware, the members haven’t been active in any other project or band during the last decade. In a way, I am satisfied with the cycle the band did and I believe they offered their own rotten bit to the scene, they went down the stage with their best work and that doesn’t have me thinking that I want more from them. In the case of Antaeus for example, I always wanted another album after Blood Libels, and I had no clue in 2015-2016 that Condemnation was coming, but the music Katharsis has offered is more than enough. Not that a new album would have been bad news in any way. The path of the band during the 00’s was sincere, it strongly held the fiery passion bursting from black metal to the world, and they never compromised.

Listen in darkness at maximum volume.

Into Deathlike Silence Productions

Deathlike Silence Productions is the opening and very important chapter in the history of black metal. It was the first independent label dealing with that weird genre back then, held by one hell of a personality, Euronymous. Either you liked the guy's views or not (I don't, really), he sure helped the genre grow to a certain point in the underground and the immense attention it got later was not his fault. The name of the label was taken from Sodom's Obsessed By Cruelty, if anyone's wondering, and it was formerly named Posercorpse for a short period of time. It all ended precipitously when Eyronymous was murdered and a lot of plans were left in cold waters, but after so many years, I think the incident just adds to it's legacy. Euronymous runned a small store "Helvete" where he would sell Sodom, Kreator, Venom records and merch, along with the label's copies. The attitude of the label was interesting, with anti-Lavey/anti-moshing patches, to anti-Scott Burns pictures on the original back covers of albums. Nine albums were officially released via Deathlike Silence:

Merciless - The Awakening [Sweden]
Burzum - Burzum [Norway]
Mayhem - Deathcrush (Ep) [Norway]
Abruptum - Obscuritatem... [Sweden]
Burzum - Aske (Ep) [Norway]
Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas [Norway]
Sigh - Scorn Defeat [Japan]
Enslaved - Vikingligr Veldi [Norway]
Abruptum - In Umbra... [Sweden]

Darkthrone threatened Peaceville Records to release their albums with Deathlike Silence, when they changed from death metal to black metal. Mysticum were also signed in Deathlike Silence and would release "Where the Raven Flies" but the label was closed after the death of Euronymous before they managed to do it, leaving them label-less. Monumentum's "In Absentia Christi" was also planned to be released, and Euronymous was thinking to sign Hadez from Peru, Masacre from Colombia and Rotting Christ from Greece. Yay. A Norwegian random music label took over DSP's distribution after it went down, named Voice of Wonder Records.

Euronymous in the DSP headquarters.

1990: Merciless - The Awakening
Release number one, sounds as if Sepultura's "Morbid Visions" was remade with more death metal elements in it. Fast, raw, bestial deathrash for all the fans of the underground extreme metal, injecting influences from bands like Possessed, Death, Slayer, Kreator etc... Despite it's short length (less than half an hour), it has some wonderful dynamics and it it considered a classic.

1992: Burzum - Burzum
Varg's debut was made out of a simple formula. The music is easy to play but it has the needed blackness, in which the so called necrosound was adjusted. This used to be my favourite Burzum release even though it might not be the best, but songs like War, Black Spell of Destruction, A Lost Forgotten Sad Spirit, Ea Lord Of The Depths are some of his best. This album is different from his later more primitive efforts, ironically enough.

1993: Mayhem - Deathcrush (Ep)
Originally released in 1987 via Posercorpse, there was a re-release and reprint of this ultra classic record in 1993 through DSP. 25 years later, it seems like a record of evil kids playing around, overusing the word "fuck" and going no deeper than a superficial black/thrash approach to their music. Yet, the songs are nailed to the all-star notice board.

1993: Abruptum - Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectere Me
 A lot has been said about this band. It is obscure even for the standards of the genre, it has it's own way of torturing musical instruments into something that eventually drives you insane. To some (Euronymous included), it is the manifestation of evil, the ultimate black/noise punishment, to others it's just random, silly jamming. No music here, you might as well turn violent listening to this.

1993: Burzum - Aske (Ep)
Three tracks and a burned church cover, matches given with every copy of the first print, title meaning Ashes in english... How closer can one get to what was happening back then? Musically, it isn't far from the first album. which means raw vocals and torn out production.

1994: Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
This might be THE fundamental album here. In terms of ideology and popularity, it always comes up among the very best black metal albums ever and it has some classic riffs by Euronymous (Freezing Moon, From the Dark Past, Pagan Fears, De Mysteriis...). A bit overestimated, if you ask me, but still amazing. I am a mortal, but am I human?

1993: Sigh - Scorn Defeat
I was surprised when I saw that Sigh's debut album was released under this label. The avant-garde metallers from Japan offer a piece of black heaviness along with some smartly played keyboard lines. Diverse, original, colossal. The influences from thrash, doom and older heavy metal are obvious here and there, which explains why their music is not pure black metal, but it is still into that scene.

1994: Enslaved - Vikingligr Veldi
This is my favourite release by DSP. A strong viking feeling and talented musicianship, amazing sound, great synths and lengthy compositions. Even though they stayed away from the activity and the corpse paint, it is one of my favourite albums of the second wave as well, for it's brilliance delivery. It captures an epic feeling and has many interesting ideas, proving that extreme metal was not strictly for satanic purposes.

1994: Abruptum - In Umbra...
Full title goes as: In Umbra Malitiae Ambulabo, In Aeternum In Triumpho Tenebrarum. This time, it is a long 60 minute song (if it can be called a song) full of weird noises and awful, painful screams. I don't believe that the vocalist It was tortured during the recordings as many people say. Even though his voice does sound like someone that is extremely hurt, they probably just stuck him inside a closet away from the microphone.

From the back cover of "De Mysteriis..."