The Sanctity of Virtue as Bestowed by the Gods

Well, like every Black Tribe I've heard, this is mostly weird, mostly pretty sweet, and arguing that this is "good" music could be a hard argument depending on whom you're having it with. You get the feeling that the ideas are focused but that the gap between getting the ideas out of his head and getting it into a final form just couldn't be quite bridged. It's not about being a production queen, but it's a fair call that this kind of stuff does need a bit more of a thorough recording job. It's still a pretty good listen though.

Much of the album could be quite succinctly described as "martial drone doom", whereby one or two riffs cycle around a whole lot, the drums beat out a insistent, ominous tattoo, and a whole bunch of distorted screaming gets thrown over the top. It's really atmospheric, and it's a credit that the slow, hypnotic tracks manage to avoid just becoming really boring. Whether it's the evil-singing-bowl that fades in and out of the final track, or the occasionally warm and stonerish, often rather threatening drones of the title track, it's pretty fair to say that there's only two ideas per song at the most, but they're dark, twisted and engaging enough that it doesn't matter too much. The one oddity here, the Methadroney, Swans-ish, Belong-ish, Eluvium-ish lofi drone folk noise weirdo track of "Embrace the New Order" is also pretty sweet, as this super pitch shifted vocals moan and croon over a I-III progression while dissonance slowly climbs all over the core part of the tune. Yeah, there's a lot of really good ideas.

Yeah good ideas, but two faults. Let's get the vocals out the way first. While a possible comeback could be that I don't get what BT is going for with them, I'm still pretty sure they suck. Just a whole lot of distorted screaming, without much rhyme or reason or variation, it's got some heavy audacity vibes, a few "whispering in the bedroom so mum can't hear" vibes, I guess they're kind of hateful? But the main thing pushing along the heavy, dreadful, oppressive vibe is assuredly the riffs, not the poor and poorly recorded vocals. On poorly recorded, well, the lo-fi thing kinda works, sort of, some of the time. But you could only imagine what a huge guitar tone with some properly done drums would do for this record. Not necessarily a hi-fi thing, as the final track in particular is remarkably sinister in all of it's misty, occulted tones, but something that's been recorded on an almost exploding amp, as opposed to something that's di'd straight in through a bad distortion plug in or whatnot.

It's not a classic, it's not a great album, but it is an remarkably dark trek through a thoroughly grim soundscape. The closest comparison I could really bring to mind is something analogous to the orcs in middle earth, but in a far more dystopian, far more.. blank faced and unfeeling and industrial kind of way, I guess. Recommended for fans of weird dark music.