The Dark War Continues

Bestial Summoning’s aptly titled “The Dark War Continues” is a compilation half of which consists of their only full length “The Dark War Has Begun” and the latter half being live and demo material. Not surprisingly there’s a disparity between the two halves of the album. The “Begun” material is of pretty good sound quality, considering this is raw black metal. Not too clean and flawless, but every riff is audible and doesn’t sound like it was taped in the basement of the drummer’s parents’ house (or in the Dutch sewer system). A good level of griminess if there was such a thing, as an overly-polished sound often ruins the fun of blasphemous devil music. “Begun” itself is a gem of crude, destructive black metal, Bestial Summoning no doubt taking influence from bands like VON, Sarcofago, Bathory, etc. and comparable to the “newer” wave of primitive black metal (newer being two decades ago): Archgoat, Black Witchery, Profanatica, Blasphemy, the obvious Beherit, and so on.

I like to think of the songs following the full-length tracks as a bonus despite this being a compilation because truly “The Dark War Has Begun” is a filthy, sinister 12-song masterpiece in any context. The sound quality of the live material is a little cruddy and the demo material even worse! But that’s not to say it’s unlistenable or unenjoyable. Rather this is all part of the Bestial Summoning approach to black metal.. raw. You can’t really tell the live songs are live except the song title announcements at the beginning and sounds of the crowd at the end of each song, so fear not this isn’t one of those recordings where all you can hear is the audience whooping and cheering. These make a nice set of bonus tracks and are only improved by the fact that the vocalist calls the crowd motherfuckers and assholes. Very sinister and bone-chilling music, black metal at its core. It’s the demo songs finishing off this compilation that kills it. Recording quality doesn’t get any shittier than this and admittedly if this is all I’d heard from Bestial Summoning I couldn’t call myself a fan. Barely anything is audible except for constant screeching and drum clattering atop riffs that can barely be distinguished. You have to listen closely or turn it up to hear what’s going on, which I normally don’t mind but following an hour of decent-quality material your ears are at once raped by the lowliness of the quality here. Though being black metal, you can’t write it off simply for shit “production and engineering,” so I will say the music doesn’t disappoint – just be prepared to turn up the volume after “The Secret of the Pentagram,” way up.

Bestial Summoning are masters of raw black metal. They know how to play black metal not just assault their respective instruments and they invoke the evil demons while playing, so don’t come expecting keyboards or clean vocals or pansy “breather” interludes. Primitive, yet with a melody deep in there, not mere noise or a sloppy as fuck racket. The riffs actually get groovy at times and the reverberating Satan-imitation vocals will send chills up your spine if nothing else. This is underground black metal you’re missing out on if you’ve never given it a listen (or two or five or twenty), including Bestial Summoning’s noteworthy “The Dark War Has Begun” album as well as bonus-like material that only sweetens the deal. There’s nothing pretentious, feeble or mediocre here – the only negative is the poor sound quality of the last few songs and even that becomes a familiar part of the album after a while. Raw black metal fans, you need this.

RIP Conscicide