When I came across this band for the first time, I had pretty high expectations, mostly because of the line-up. This demo was recorded with Xaphan, Lenrauth and Black Christ, known from bands like Seigneur Voland, Desolation Triumphalis and Kristallnacht. Since I enjoyed most of the music from these bands, I hoped this project was another success, but it wasn’t quite what I expected.
What’s interesting about this demo, and which I’ve kept in mind while reviewing it, is that all the music is improvised. If one knows this before listening to it for the first time, he might not expect as much as I did. On to the music.
Most songs consist of mid-tempo or sometimes even slow black metal with an occasional blastbeat here and there. I suspect they agreed that the drummer would just improvise certain beats and the guitarist would follow him, basing the mood and the speed of his riffs on whatever the drummer decides to play. Not that this is a surprising method, but it’s clearly audible in the music. Most of the songs contain more breaks where the drums are more percussive.
Not much to say about the vocals. Just the black metal screams everyone is used to, but they’re not very present. They’re a bit muffled away between the drums and the guitars. The lyrics aren’t decipherable. It could be he too is improvising something, singing about 101 ways to kill your local priest or how he hates his neighbour’s cat for crapping on his lawn. Who knows.
Most guitar riffs consist of a few simple chords, mid-tempo to slow. An occasional flageolet or some hammer-ons are incorporated here and there. There are not a lot of fast/tremolo riffs to be found here. There aren’t any really bad riffs though. They’re not very special, nor original, though enjoyable and easy-listening. Can’t tell anything about the bass guitar, since they didn’t use one. Weird habit: at the end of practically every song, the guitarists makes a slide all the way up his fret board creating a lot of feedback.
Which brings me to the production. I think this has hardly been produced at all. It’s almost like they went into a garage or a living room, plugged in their instruments and recorded everything with a computer and a few mics scattered across the room. Maybe that’s why they don’t play many fast parts; the mid-paced parts are decipherable where the fast parts do sound a bit like a grinder. But most of it is actually pretty listenable. This production does contribute to the overall mood, which is actually quite relaxed (in a good way). It gives the feeling you could be sitting right next to them, just enjoying music because it flows nicely.
And that’s what this demo does: offering you nice, simple black metal that’s just flowing along. Not innovative, not ground-breaking, but it’s a nice effort for a demo, especially an improvised one.