Teitanblood – Death

May 9 • International News, News, Reviews, The Slumbering Ent • 5854 Views

Achintya Venkatesh reviews the latest from Teitanblood titled Death, released via Norma Evangelium Diaboli.

Artwork by Timo Ketola

1. Anteinferno

2. Sleeping Throats of the Antichrist

3. Plagues of Forgiveness

4. Cadaver Synod

5. Unearthed Veins

6. Burning in Damnation Fires

7. Silence of the Great Martyrs

Death is an inherently dualistic phenomenon – on the one hand, it is the liberating force from our inevitably finite mortal coils, giving us a logical and ineluctable end to our somatic existences. And on the other hand, it is the ever ready escapist gateway that serves as an immediate deliverance from our corporeal beings, a channel of easy escape from the awry finitudes and delimitations of our bodily existences. In the context of modern heavy music, few artists present legitimately intelligent musings and introspections on the metaphysics surrounding iconoclasm, theurgy, death and the left-hand path like Spain’s Teitanblood. Unabashed in their explorations of the arcane while maintaining a sense of enigmatic expression in their aesthetic sensibilities, both sonic and visual, Teitanblood channels an aural sense of dread while catechizing the supposed immanence of our existences by using the very theologically conformist concepts they are inimical towards as weapons of narrative building and evolution. If ‘Seven Chalices’ was the band’s foray into a Qliphotic quagmire of ritualistic mercilessness and occult-driven chaos, Teitanblood’s sophomore ‘Death’ is a solidification of all these dissident thematic explorations atop an ominousness that is almost apocalyptic in its scope.

Pics of Achintya’s personal copy of the album

Invoking influences as diverse as Blasphemy, Incantation, Celtic Frost, Autopsy and a slew of other black/death metal bands into its stylistic mould and yet never directly borrowing from them (which is why mentioning these possible influences is a bit of a futile exercise), with ‘Death’, there is no calm before the storm, not the slightest hint of warning and instead the gross disarray and turmoil is immediately brought to fore, as the rumbling opening track ‘Anteinferno’ effectively illustrates, breaking directly into a kinetic sense of riff phrasing that is simply blistering at first impression but quite obviously has a very well thought out sense of frenzy to it. Keeping in line with structural dexterity, Teitanblood allows for periodic and often trudging breaks yet quickly picks up pace and expedite the sonic canvas with its majestic yet inherently primal chord progressions. With a cavernous aesthetic that is as dense as the sometimes obfuscating oscillations of the simplistic yet immensely formidable riffs, and the intense blast-beats of J that catapults these subterranean constructions forward, the bludgeoning soundscapes that are painted by the duo evoke an entropic range of sensations that paint abstractions of bleak millenarianism, almost as if to revel in the imminent doom spewed forth in their heretical hymns. Breaks between the tracks, often comprising of ambient droning and squealing feedback seem to almost conjure images of barren lands after colossal destruction and mass upheaval, tightly holding onto its last glimmers of nugatory hope.

Despite the flagrant savagery of the structural sensibilities of the band, the duo is not averse to the usage of basic compositional ploys such as counterpoint, as can be seen in songs like ‘Sleeping Throats of the Antichrist’ where explosive leads driven by chaotic whammy-bar abuse wreak havoc alongside rapid chord progressions, invoking a sense of strangely enjoyable turbulence, with an erratic reverberance that is befitting of the implicit apocalypticism of the music. There are scant segments that are downright catchy, as can be seen in the infectious build up to ‘Cadaver Synod’, but the majority of the length of tracks are wholeheartedly oppressive and impudently monochromatic in a sense, suffocating one with its morass-like atmosphere. Far from devoid of compositional movement; sporadic, almost doom-laden mid-paced trudging is seen across all tracks at varying intensity and tempo (and specifically in the “break track” ‘Unearthed Veins’ with an addition layer of inversive and atonal leads). NSK’s vocals, the vehicle of these ungodly visceral apostasies, are perhaps the most belligerent it has ever sounded – hoarse and caustic while compromising enunciation for its thunderous delivery. The addition of the legendary Chris Reifert (Autopsy, Abscess, Death, The Ravenous, etc.) and his signature gravelly delivery on perhaps the most structurally ambitious track of the album, ‘Burning in Damnation Fires’ culminates into a cacophonic maelstrom of catastrophic proportions. Lacking in the elaborate ritualistic interludes of ‘Seven Chalices’, the album instead chooses to have a single track towards the very end, appropriately titled ‘Silence of the Great Martyrs’.

‘Death’ is a logical bridge between the spaced out asphyxiation of ‘Seven Chalices’ and the even more cryptic ‘Woven Black Arteries’ EP, but in comparison to the band’s past catalogue is exacerbatingly megalomaniacal in its eschatological proclamations, pounding rhythmic sensibilities and piercing assault. An evidently polarizing release, one camp with its superficial outlook will denounce ‘Death’ as a substance-less, crude and pretentious black/death metal (or better yet, war metal) release; while the other will celebrate this nihilistic yet grandiose monolith; a logical continuation of the extreme art of yore, adding to its primitivistic disposition an aesthetic aided by modernity, with a unique artistic vision to its name. Few bands succeed in achieving a rounded aesthetic presentation but ‘Death’ truly is an abyssal experience of epic proportions in every sense of the word. Mortui vivos docent. Only death is real.

RATING : 5/5

A majestic monument, a banner of triumph for the ages, like a berserk barbarian overpowering a mighty horde single-handed with time for wenches and wine on the side.

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Hour of Penance – Regicide

May 7 • International News, News, Reviews, The Slumbering Ent • 3813 Views

Hour of Penance‘s new record titled Regicide is released via Prosthetic Records.

Being in the shadow of a peer from the same part of the world, in terms of popularity, is not something new in metaldom. And more often than not, the band in the shadow is usually far better sounding than the one towering over it. In that case Hour of Penance and Fleshgod Apocalypse are sample case studies. This despite the fact that Fleshgod was nothing but an offshoot (thanks to ex-HoP vocalist Francesco Paolo) of HoP.

When you examine individual albums like say The Vile Conception and Paradogma, you’d find that they were more than just run of the mill brutal death metal. They were far better in terms of craftsmanship and delivery than their immediate peers in Fleshgod Apocalypse. Fleshgod for me is too much of that pomp and show and in the end sounds like a rather poor caricature of latter day Septic Flesh. Hour of Penance are a tour de force of punishing rhythm and blistering speed which do not just make you fall off the chair, but splinter it at multiple points. Yet what set them apart from the rest of the BDM milieu are those riffs that bleed melody as much as they do brutality. Riffs that are technical yet neatly carved out and complete with leadwork that gush out through multiple orifices. This inevitably grants the band with that much elusive power of recollection to the average listener.

To the uninitiated I’d say they sound like the bastard child of Nile and Hate Eternal. An espousal of the best parts of both bands. Sedition their last album, with new vocalist Paolo Pieri, was a fine tuning of sorts and saw the band making the melody employed more prominent, all the while taking special care not to tone down their forte of brute force. It seemed that a balance was struck, and clearly edged the album over the rest of their discography.

Regicide, their latest, on the other hand seems to see the band lose some of that magical finishing agent. Everything Hour of Penance has come to be known for, are all there. The relentless double bass driven assault, guitars that wrench first and crush later, a fair amount of melody and winding leads are all in attendance. Yet that careful craft of presenting them in a form greater than the sum of their individual parts is sorely found lacking.

Lets go into a bit of detail. The ever-so-common scene setter intro comes as an industrial track Through the Triumphal Arch. This then gives way to Reforging the Crowns that bursts in to reveal those infectious melodic hooks one by one, that mount, topple and entangle each other only to explode into a relentless barrage of riffage and double bass. Best track and lead single Desecrated Souls would sound more at home on Paradogma or Sedition, for there is ample amount of those deep piercing hooks, badass downtuned arpeggio sections, chanted vocals that double as both atmosphere and main motif. At this point things do look good and the album is poised to be, to say the least, another good if not great HoP record. Resurgence of the Empire follows a path much similar structure-wise, but never fails to emanate its own persona. Again things looking fairly decent. But the next bunch of tracks Spears of Sacred Doom, Sealed in Ecstasy (barring its cool intro and initial riffage) and Redeemer of Atrocity comes off completely soulless and extremely one-dimensional. All the elements seem to be just filling in on their functions but lack that much important coalescing agent. The title track shows a few signs of relief with a spruced up chorus, but fails to capitalize further. Giulio Moschini’s creative alley seems to have met with a dead end as the riffs fall off like lizards off wet glass, failing to stick which was usually not the case with an HoP record. The rest of the album save for The Seas of Light, with its chock full groovy riffage and Payne’s piston strapped beats, does not do enough to entitle a return to form.With a rather vapid bottom half and a bunch of good songs that pale in comparison to the ones on previous records, the album becomes more of a lackluster affair. The production quality although never really that bad, seems to have undergone a bit of compression after their last album. This leaves the riffs with a much diminished breathing space to develop and the drumbeats bereft of power (an injustice to James Payne’s impressive and consistent drum work).

Hour of Penance garbs itself in yet another raiment bedecked with jewels and intricate tapestry, but this one gives off a shade of pale grey. Not the spectacle you’d expect it to be. In the end just managing to be borderline desultory and derivative of its former self. Regicide is definitely not the album that I wished it would be. But hopefully this is nothing but a temporary hiccup in what is to be a long career.

RATING : 2.5/5

(This metal firmament is infested with screeds no better nor worse than this one. )

There is a full album stream happening at Decibel.

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