Morbid Destitution of Covenant

Dark and cavernous death metal has become a pretty big thing over the past few years, with a lot of bands following in the footsteps of veterans Incantation. While a lot of releases within this particular sub-genre do not come close to classics like “Onward to Golgotha” or “Diabolical Conquest”. One band that really manages to go toe-toe with Mr. McEntee and his crew is Father Befouled. Calling them inspired by Incantation is not meant in a dismissive way, and founder Justin Stubbs himself said that the main purpose when he wrote “Morbid Destitution of Covenant” was to come close to the masters of the so-called cavern core. While their debut “Obscurus Nex Cultus” has a disturbing fascination, this record is where the death metal machine Father Befouled started rolling, so it is great to see this milestone being re-released by Krucyator 10 years after its initial release.

So with any potential for innovation to be found here out of the window it becomes pretty obvious what to expect before you hit the playing button. Crushing and relentless old school death metal, leaving your agonizing soul completely disoriented and desolated. Songs like “Paradise of Desecrated Nothingness” perfectly blend crawling and creepy slow and mid-tempo passages and hammering blasts, but even when the tempo is upped the music always stays sluggish and extremely heavy.

One could argue that albums like this might sound a bit samey, as many tracks on here seem to be based around the same sort of blueprint, with riffs and drum patterns that are pretty similar to one another. However, the record possesses a murky, dense feel, with twisted, monolithic riffs in abundance. Whilst there are a handful of flaws to be found, the way Justin and his fellow band mates have been able to evoke such a morbid ambience makes up for most of these shortfalls.

The instrumentation is top notch, with the musicians being able to switch tempos and rhythmic patterns within the blink of an eye, without ever losing their path. Some crazy soloing sections have been implemented as well, but most of the time they are used as another way of enhancing the chaos and destruction going on. The vocals by Justin are completely sick and he sounds like the bastard son of the Smelter Demon. Some might not like this kind of approach, I personally think it perfectly fits the music and the atmosphere created.

The production qualities took a huge step-up between “Obscurus Nex Cultus” and “Morbid Destitution of Covenant”, with the latter still sounding raw and putrid, but offering a lot more power and clarity at the same time. This is more or less the way this kind of music has to be presented in my opinion. As far as I can judge the original cover has been kept, and this is a good choice, rounding off a great album well worth a re-release. So as it is now available for a fair price every fan of this style needs to add this one to his collection in case this has not been done in the first place.

If this won’t one of the heaviest and most obscure and morbid death metal albums you've ever listened to, then I have no idea what sort of bands you've heard. Man, Father Befouled is like a fuckin bulldozer, which goes through the towns, breaking the walls and destroying all the buildings. It's like a fuckin napalm, which was dropped upon the mankind, burning the skin to bare bones. But really, this is one of the grimmest, darkest, most sinister and mournful albums I've heard. Think of Incantation and then double it and maybe you'll get to understand how doomy stuff this is. No wonder though, the line up consists of no one else, but Ghoat and Elektrokutioner - two men, who're responsible for the most depressing LP I've got in my collection, for Encoffination's "O' Hell, Shine in Thy Whited Sepulchres". Those two play in many other projects also, like Festered, Beyond Hell (two great death metal acts) or Wooden Stake, Scaremaker, Skincrawler, Tombstones, Vomitchapel... The list goes on. I can only imagine how dark your psyche must be to compose the music for so many bands, among which Father Befouled and Encoffination bring the misery and depression into your home and make you lose all the joy and hope instantly.

To be honest, I keep asking myself why the hell do I like this LP so much?! I mean, usually I go for more energetic death metal sounds, for probably something faster or Swedish sounding. But well, there are also plenty of slower, maybe even doomy bands that I like a lot. And it's not just My Dying Bride, early Anathema, Decomposed, Incantation or Asphyx. But still it's very rare when a band from such genre catches my attention so much. Father Befouled did. I think it's all due to the overwhelming atmosphere of "Morbid Destitution of Covenant". It is damn scary. It is like a most sinister horror. Or even more so, it is like death yells from the pits of the darkest catacombs.

Anyway, "Morbid Destitution of Covenant" is excellent experience. The riffs are heavy, with very low tuning, raw and sharp production, and brutal, deep guttural vocals. The tempos not only focus on the slow paces, but quite often Father Befouled speeds up, playing such a massively heavy parts that they do create a feeling of claustrophobia, it’s like if the walls were getting closer and closer to you, so you scream in agony, squeezed in between the two monuments. I do like the fact that "Morbid Destitution of Covenant" has so many faster parts, even if with that they tend to remind Incantation or Dead Congregation a lot, but at least Father Befouled avoids this monotony, which is the biggest - and only - fault on "O' Hell, Shine in Thy Whited Sepulchres". Of course the doomy aspect of "Morbid Destitution of Covenant" is excellent, listen to such tracks as "As Reverence Descends” “His Divine Pestilence” or the opening part of “Paradise of Desecrated Nothingness”. This is one great funeral doom death metal, the atmosphere is just eerie and with some occasional intros it just gets creepy as hell (like the "Inno Sepulchrum" intro or “Now Desecrated”). But it's always great also to have more dynamics in the music and Father Befouled uses them in appropriate way. When you listen to such anthems like “Testament of Unholy Essence” or “Christless Mass”, then it really feels like the skies were burning and throwing down the thunders. And “Vomiting Impurity” includes even slightly more melodic riff, but that’s of course before the guitar and drum bashing goes back to normal. Ha, excellent stuff, really. Blood Harvest Records again did an excellent job with their vinyls, releasing a superb gatefold LP. I do recommend getting it, if not the LP then CD at least and trust me, this is some seriously massacring stuff. I regret I’m not familiar with Father Befouled’s debut LP “Obscurus Nex Cultus” or any of their EPs, but after hearing what’s on "Morbid Destitution of Covenant" I definitely will try to get those recordings also.

Father Befouled is another of the many bands in recent years who have devoted themselves to reaching straight back to the 90s, tearing out the essence of Incantation's charnel, atmospheric aesthetics, and bringing the style forward to a new era in which it poises as a fine counterbalance to the technical excess that has driven the genre far beyond the reach of many of its originators. Granted, they're better at this than most of their peers, and that's because they seem to take it quite seriously, as opposed to a joke or 'the thing to do' by broaching some bandwagon.

Father Befouled's members come from an interesting pool of sources. You've got Ghoat of USBM act Hills of Sefiroth on vocals and guitars, joined by his band mate Wayne Sarantopoulous from Festered and Encoffination on drums, whom you might recognize as 'Elektrokutioner', he of about 400 bands, almost single-handedly attempting to resurrect the primacy of early death metal into a modern empire. They're joined by an enigmatic guitarist 'Ghoul', and bassist J. Kohn of raw black shredders Prosanctus Inferi and Black Funeral. An eclectic range of experience here, but you can rest assured that all participants are committed to the vile pallor of authentic sound, the raw and cavernous pedigree required to make an album like Morbid Destitution of Covenant function. And it does.

Take for instance, the brief track "As Reverence Descends", really just an intro to "Paradise of Desecrated Nothingness", but astoundingly poignant as its doom-driven chords groan out across the ringing feedback at the climax. "Paradise..." itself continues to let the feedback soar, while a disgusting bitch of a slugging riff begins to stagger out into a morbid metroplex of wrenching horror. "His Divine Pestilence" is another horrid drudge, but the band does not merely play slow; they can thunder over you like an unholy approximation of Bolt Thrower and Incantation in "Testament of Unholy Essence", "Christless Mass" and "Sulfurous Majesty Above Man", and the Morbid Destitution of Covenant ultimately becomes a strident, dynamic sophomore that cements Father Befouled as one of the band's to be reckoned with in this movement.

Usually, the albums in these gentlemen participate are rough sounding at best, but I was taken aback at just how clean the mix here is. Almost all the atmosphere is delivered straight through the ruptured attendance of the guttural vocals, and the bludgeoning resonance of the guitar lines. You won't find funeral keys or other tricks infesting the songs to provide the underworld aesthetics, these are conjured directly through the death metal, and in this way the band truly succeeds as a direct medium to their idols. Father Befouled don't exactly create memorable riffing fare, but that's generally not the point of an album like this. It beats you down through the graveyard dirt to the catacombs belief, and sacrifices you upon a forgotten altar, a cure for sunshine, rainbows and ponies.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Review orginally posted at www.teethofthedivine.com by Erik Thomas

Incantation is the new black.

If mimicry is the highest form of flattery, Incantation have to be drowning in flattery considering the rather sudden rash of supposedly old school death metal acts that are plying a form of their trademark style. It’s a style I never cared for when Incantation played it 15 years ago and while my tastes and exposure to the style have expanded, my response is still lukewarm with a few exceptions (Vaesaleth, Portal, Impetuous Ritual, Teitanblood, Dead Congregation to name a few).

Right alongside recent releases by the likes of Beyond Hell, Blaspherian, Decrepitaph, Goreaphobia, Burial Invocation, Contaigeon and many others, arguably the most Incantation-y is Georgia’s Father Befouled, who while admittedly are ripping off another band, at least is isn’t Mastodon.

Scrawling, filthy, cavernous feedback drenched noise is the order of the day, with the music being less about riffs and more about a murky, oppressive mood. The nine tracks and the intro/outro that comprise Morbid Destitution of Covenant continue where the band’s split with Helcaraxe left off with no changes in their tone or delivery. They do the chosen homage well for what it is, supplying ample density and dissonant rumbling with little flare or bullshit. It’s direct, noisy, somewhat nauseating and…well, it sounds like Incantation! I don’t think I can be any clearer or more honest.

The mostly warbling blasts of course veer plentifully into expected sludgy, trudging segues with “As Reverence Descends”, “Testament of Unholy Essence”, “Vomiting Impurity” and “Christless Mass” just to name a few. None of them really stand apart or stand out amid the albums 38-minute run time as it all seems to blend into one long song. Only the 6+ minute closing instrumental outro “Now Desecrated” invokes any tangible sense of dread with its atmospheric drone and haunting chants. But when a 6-minute outro is the albums most evocative track, I think there might be a problem.

With that being said, if you are craving note for note Incantation worship (logo, artwork and song titles included) Father Befouled are the obvious choice, though they should be sending royalty checks to John McEntee.

Relapse Records recently announced that they have signed Father Befouled for release of their new album, which is the second full-length, following 2008's Obscurus Nex Cultus. In between, the band released a couple of EPs and appeared on a couple of splits, and suffered the suicide of their drummer (Antichristus). The new album -- Morbid Destitution of Covenant -- will be released September 14 on CD, but it's already available digitally on iTunes (as is the first album) and elsewhere.

The band appears to be composed of people who now live in Chicago and in Georgia. In an interesting interview that pre-dated completion of the album, Father Defouled's guitarist/vocalist Ghoat identified Incantation and Immolation as the band's principal influences. If you're familiar with the work of those bands, they will certainly spring to mind if you listen to the album, and seeing those names will give you an idea what the music sounds like.

Let me try to give you a further idea by stringing together a whole bunch of adjectives instead of using them in separate sentences. The music is oppressive, bleak, doomed, ominous, claustrophobic, jagged, intense, hopeless, grinding, serpentine, ponderous, funereal, black, crushing, and ugly. At times, it's also furious, razor-edged, insectile, shrill, vicious, harrowing, paranoid, and explosive.

I didn't immediately like this album -- my own tastes lean more strongly toward faster, riff-laden death metal. But as I listened more, I came to like it. The question I'm still trying to answer is why.

The album begins with a short, ominous organ instrumental and ends with an almost 7-minute track ("Now Desecrated") that consists almost entirely of the slow, hypnotic singing of a choir, slowly growing in volume, delivering what sounds like a medieval, Gregorian requiem.

In between are 9 songs that follow a repeating pattern. Each song alternates between up-tempo, black-metal style tremolo-picked chords and blast-beats, and massively down-shifted, trudging death-doom. The songs often segue immediately into each other without pause, and that's part -- but only part -- of the reason why this album is less a collection of 11 distinct songs than it is one long song, designed simply to produce an emotional effect (see my original string of adjectives).

The main reason why this album feels like one long song is the inexorable pattern I mentioned above -- the constant shifting back and forth between faster-passed passages heralded by the tremolo chords and blast-beats and the massively downtuned, ominously slow trudging of death-doom. Back and forth, over and again, from the beginning of the second song to the ending of the 10th.

In those slow, grinding passages, where the bass and rhythm guitar join in hammering out merciless, groaning chords and the drums thud with the rhythm of a funeral procession, the lead guitar line rarely consists of anything more than prolonged feedback or the needling sound of a European emergency-vehicle siren ("wheee-o, whee-o, whee-o"). There are a few howling guitar leads, but they are rare.

And then there are the vocals. Think of a foghorn, and then think of an even lower sound. Ghoat's vocals are lower-than-low gutturals, monotonous, evil, and always slow-paced, even when the music hits one of those alternating up-tempo segments. They're so low and so droning in quality that sometimes you don't even notice them except as a background thrumming that enhances the doomed feeling of the music.

For most listeners, it would probably be enough to say that if you like this kind of music, you will like this album, and if you don't, you won't. Which is why I'm still scratching my head about my own reaction -- because this kind of mostly plodding doom isn't usually the brand of death metal I like.

I certainly don't plan to start off every day listening to Morbid Destitution, even though I've warmed up to it (although "warm" is probably the wrong word to use for this music). But I've come to admire Father Befouled's success in achieving an overpowering emotional effect in the songs as a whole, and the almost perfect ending achieved by attaching that long choral lament at the end.