Inabalável Orgulho Pagão

Sick and tired with the professional and phoney black metal bands churning out subpar records popular amongst mallcore kids, many black metal musicians during the early years of the 21st century decided to return to roots and create music that is as primitive as can be. Just like the rest of Europe, the Iberian peninsula has quite a bulky raw black metal scene. When it comes to Portugal, Black cilice and Cripta Oculta are definitely the two main reference points whenever talking about the local raw black metal scene.

Since forming in 2004, Cripta Oculta has cursed humankind with several different musical scourges. "Inabalavel Orgulho Pagao", released in 2010, eleven years ago, has aged pretty consistently. This demo contains a total of four different tracks, the last of which is a cover of Kristallnacht' "The Praise of War". When it comes to the themes explored within this small release, the main ones are definitely white supremacy, war and darkness, or in simpler terms, more or less the usual cup of coffee you'd expect from an underground raw black metal band. The music on here is pretty adequate. Although there is not much to write in terms of technical proficiency or technical song-writing, the artists behind this musical project know how to create and how to perpetrate, dark and bleak soundscapes you'd expect from a funeral doom band.

The pace at which this demo flows varies a lot between each track. The first track feels a lot like a Marduk-tribute song that sounds extremely bellicose and primitive. The second song slows things down by a million notch. To be fair, the playing on this song sounds a little but sloppy, and since the production is pretty raw and stripped-down, the effect made by the lead guitars diminishes in stature and impact. The third track, or better yet, the title track is another track that keeps things very somber and slow at first, only to turn into a full on frontal-assault on the listeners' ears. The guitar work on this song reminds me a lot of "Filosofem"-era Burzum. The presence of the keyboards on this song, gives the track a really cold and desolate feel which works wonders. The last song is played quite well and the band pays an amazing homage to Kristallnacht.

Overall, this demo is quite a decent listen. If you're someone who is always searching for new sounds and new musical tendencies within black metal, then maybe this release and this band in general might not be your cup of tea. On the other hand, if you are someone who appreciates bands such as Ildjarn, Kristallnacht, Aryan Art and the likes, will definitely enjoy this release.