Perkeleen luoma

Man, Azaghal keeps getting better and better! The Finnish dark horde has always been close to my heart, cause they produce cold, honest blackmetal. But unholy fuck, this time Azaghal released a vociferous, brutal, intense thrashing blackmetal monster!!
Where past releases always had the right feeling, but couldn’t really stand out from avarage Scandinavian, French and German blackmetal bands, this album is a huge step forward. Definitely Azaghal, together with Behexen, can claim the Finnish black metal throne now, but not only that, these two bands rule the underworld reigns of Satan himself!

Hints of the progression could already be heard on the great split album with Black Death Ritual. I picked that one up a few months before the Perkeleen luoma cd, though it seems that this full-length was released first. That doesn’t change the fact that I like it even better than the split.
The first track “Kutunkantaja” (I don’t understand shit of Finnish, if you want to know what it means try to contact DuskLord who did some great Azaghal reviews elsewhere on these pages, he is from Finland) is a blasting piece of furious hate! It smashes you in the face like a sledgehammer. The guitarsound is harsh and cold, the way it is meant to be. Both the sound and the song remind me of Sorhin’s splendid “Apokalypsens ängel” album sometimes. This is by no way bad! There is so much variation on Perkeleen luoma: Azaghal really developed their songwriting. Tracks like “Kuoleman kylmä ikuisuus” (5) and Riivaaja (7) are epic and long songs that remain very cold and brutal however.
The vocals by Varjoherra are THE perfect blackmetal screams: cold, intense and even frightening sometimes. The title track (8) is an instrumental/electronic interlude but after that “Orja” is a real blast again. The final song “Filosofi” (over 8 minutes!) starts as an epic hymn, then a nice, long and intricate guitarriff sets you up for a brutal attack. However, first the song takes a rest halfway with an easy clean guitarline performed by guitar and bass. Then the expected onslaught follows…

The only thing Azaghal has to do right now is find a real drummer again. Although the programming of the percussions is done very professional and the sound is brutal and pounding, a human drummer can maybe add even more depth to the songs.

The cd contains a video of the “Kyy” track, taken from the mcd with that title. Both the song and the video are not that great. Making a real gloomy and obscure video is hard and of course the budget is always limited. The clip starts out predictably with a camera “walking” low over snowy woodgrounds in the dark. You will see some fire-spitting and silhouettes with a knife in a flashing light. Especially the flashlight is kind of dull. In the end a bloody hand in the snow makes up for that.
More importantly the extra song “Kyy” doesn’t reach the level of the album by far… It is a short epic heavymetal orientated track. It seems like Azaghal wants to show they can outdo fellow countrymates Sentenced (and I do NOT mean the majestic “North from here”!!)… No harsh, cold blackmetal, this track, too bad.

However, this album is mandatory for blackmetal legions around the world! I myself am also gonna order the double vinyl version. This contains all five tracks of the aforementioned Kyy mcd, of which “Orja” and “Perkeleen Kitaan” are also on the full-length. With this raging effort expectations rise very high for the upcoming “Codex antitheus” album!