The Fallen One of Flames / Satanic Zeitgeist

The Fallen One of Flames/Satanic Zeitgeist, is one of the best compilations, what a beautiful stuff, that slow compositions who transit to the classic finnish blast drums, screams, and whispers who identify Beherit too. For me this really is a masterpiece, since the Intro/Flowing Downwards, Master Spirit has a more energetic charge that is more similar to Beherit's compositions, with the classic rhythms of tupa-tupa, tatatata, altough like Sarcófago as well, It seems like South American metal, the guitar rhythms are also quite characteristic, slow and forceful at the same time, their imbue you with an atmosphere of darkness and brutality. Goddess of Doom, as his name indicates, generates that "doom" atmosphere, that doomed guitar and those slow drum rhythms, I think even metaphorically speaking. It has a lot of under tones, I love how it ends up slowly lowering, and you can hear serious noises, like the howl of a prevailing wind. In "Outro" we can contemplate a really murky, black heavy atmosphere, how desperate screams it seem like a dramatic teatrical scene, that gloomy, obscure and intermittent background sound only generates more tension, until it finally ends, like the inherent end of a horrendous journey, as if It would have only been a nightmare and in the end when you wake up you find a dry and hostile morning, predicting that your reality is perhaps even worse. Phobos Watching You, only increases that feeling of the song before, just turning that into another evil energy, their managed to materialize that feeling since at the beginning and reading the title of the song I could really imagine it, the whispers continue "Phobos Watching You... Phobos Watching You...", Phobos is the Greek god of fear and terror, Φόϐος / Phóbos: "fear". I love when a song can materialize that sensation or transmit effects, like a synesthetic metaphorical abstraction of two universal things in both sense and knowledge: music and language.

Of course, in Black Crucifixion, a composition so apparently simple but with the necessary components to become something iconic and unique: the identity of the band, those delirious, schizoid, I would say even macabre and dark riffs, accompanied by the desperate screams of Fornicator, returning to slow bestial Beheristic/Sarcofaguistic sound, at the same time reminds me of the old Samael in Worship Him/Into The Infernal Storm of Evil. Finally we come to the cover, this is fantastic, it's like taking the initial rawness of Venom to an even more animal and wild instance, I really like this cover, it's as if each one stood out in some different way, due to it's uniqueness. Here I feel that F. sings like a real wolf with rage or something like that. Jari (Sodomatic Slaughter) killed drums from start to finish, sounds so familiar! Satanic Zeitgeist, at first minute it reminds me somewhat of Mayhem but mainly of the demos of black metal, black/thrash, of bands like Treblinka, later it follows the same South American line, intermittent and aggressive. In all this material that "rusty noise" is contemplated, it's incredible! Nightmare, speechless, truly amazing. A final tribute to one of the South American gods of extreme metal, black/thrash/death metal, unparalleled! One of the greatest influences internationally, crossing continents to unite maniacs in the same madness and passion, Niiightmaareee! Again Jari killed those drums. Leaving Rovaniemi by Night is one of the most beautiful and somber compositions in my opinion, with the connotation that "Leaving" Rovaniemi by "Night", gives it an even more melancholic air as well as very brutal, ghostly.

This is great for disconnecting from reality and immersing yourself into a trance of chaotic noises, distant cosmic/underworld atmospheres. You're really going to Flowing Downwards. A masterpiece, as a South American I can quite feel the influence and consanguinity of European/South American metal, which as always, crosses borders and limits. "I descend into another world
Another dimension...".

While Beherit’s early recordings became total cult items and the band has been praised incessantly to this very date, their brother band Black Crucifixion, hailing from the very same circles in northern Finland, never garnered the same amount of attention. The Fallen One of Flames is, nonetheless, an essential piece of the country’s black metal history along with the originators - namely Beherit and Impaled Nazarene - and on this recent re-release, the demo comes together with the live recording Satanic Zeitgeist that was recorded at the legendary Day of Darkness festival a year before The Fallen One of Flames’ release.

The Fallen One of Flames comprises five tracks of which three are actual black metal, starting with ”Flowing Downwards”, a lengthy feast on mid-paced, simple riffs reminiscent of Samael with subtle synths in the background. ”Master Spirit” is a faster, blast-filled piece and hence more clearly in the vein of Beherit, also due to the whispery vocals. ”Goddess of Doom” was originally a bonus track on the first 50 copies of the tape, but luckily it is included here as well as it is as strong song of muddy, evil black metal in a fitting, dirty soundscape.

For me, the best part of the CD is actually the live recording Satanic Zeitgeist. I’ve heard some criticism about the sound production here, but I can not fathom that: this sounds brilliant! I’d go as far as saying that it sounds better than the demo due to the sharper and tighter sound in which these swift songs work very well. As implied, the compositions are simple here as well and they profit from being enough short. ”Black Crucifixion” and ”Satanic Zeitgeist” are pretty damn great songs of utter morbidity and all that is possibly evil, most perfectly apparent when the blast beats get high in tempo and the vocalist does maniacal, high-pitched screams that bury everything else in the background. Needless to say, Venom and Sarcófago covers fit like a fist to the face to the slew of tracks here, and I’m especially fond of the latter, ”Nightmare”.

If you’re to explore what the history of Finnish black metal has to offer in its very first years, The Fallen One of Flames / The Satanic Zeitgeist is a logical purchase among the obvious ones. It convinces with its deep dark atmosphere and knows to crush with riffs. A worthwile re-release undoubtedly, and wholeheartedly recommended.

4 / 5
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