Whore of Bethlehem

I feel like on paper I should enjoy this record. It has the classic mediocre to bad production, black metal riffs, cavernous vocals, and themes within the music I can enjoy like the blasphemous take upon the stories of god. If I were to look down at an album with all these things I feel like my programmed answer is, "this is amazing" but I end with this feeling of wanting more out of an album that really should have brought more. I want to start with my first criticism of the album being reuse of riffs throughout the album.

After the intro we are awarded with a really good war metal song with all its bells and whistles with a fantastic riff. However, this riff is used over and over and over again throughout the album as if the musicians only knew one black metal riff to play. Its a really good riff, yes, however upon hearing it throughout each song it slowly drags into mediocrity and at the end of the album you want to burn this riff to the ground along with the churches of the album.

This leads into my second point, the really strong lyrics that slowly rot away into, "oh, I knew he was going to say that". Most people will say that the lyrics of a death metal album don't matter, I however, will criticize each point against an album and I happen to enjoy a lot of the imagery evoked from extreme metal lyrics. The lyric in the album serve the purpose of telling the blasphemous story of god but does nothing unique with a concept done again and again outside of its use of imagery. It clearly shows you the lyricist knows how to write interesting lyrics but he never changes up or explores other imagery outside of the gruesome Christian imagery such as seen on the album cover.

My final big complaint on the album is the mixing on the album in general. Yes, I did say I can enjoy the worst production on an album but that only comes with good mixing. Where are the drums on the album outside the guy hitting one piece of the drum for a few bars and then going into a fit of rage each and every time? The drummer clearly has an idea of what he wants to play but has nothing to show for it on the album.

I have dragged on this album a bit so I will say its good points are the bass and vocal work. The bass on the album is thankfully not washed away into the mix and on a lot of the death metal sections of songs, can clearly be heard and adds a nice sense of groove in a way to the album. The lead singer on the album also is rather talented and while he does not show a large range, in the guttural style he sings in, he does quite well for himself.

Overall, the album really just suffers from its lack to innovate or provide something new outside of its intro and first track. There are glimmers of really good stuff on the album so I will not hesitate to venture more into their discography but this album as a whole was rather mediocre. It’s a 65% for me.