Fordømt Knust

Whereas South America has become an absolute hotbed for unblack metal, a little further north in Mexico, unblack bands are very few and far between. Aside from Deborah, most Mexican unblack metal revolves around the accomplished act Hortor, and its various band member's side-projects. Fordomt Knust is one of the those side-projects.

Varme of Hortor here plays pretty standard black metal in a similar vein to early Hortor and Beeroth, but unfortunately ends up falling a little flat. Where Beeroth is raw and manic, Fordomt Knust is tired sounding. Varme (here known as Marturion) is an ample musician, here playing all the instruments, but it is the production that really suffers.

Much like his other project, Impaled Baphomet, the vocals are pushed too far to the front and result in a bit of an uneven sound. Keyboards are neither gothic like Beeroth, nor atmospheric like early Hortor, but rather just simply there. Guitars are pushed far into the background, ending up simply sounding like waspy noise and static. Occasional clean breaks complement the music well enough I suppose, but end up sounding forced.

If the keyboards were eliminated altogether, this would be a fair enough EP of grim black metal. Marturion's vocals are decent, though they lack the ferocity of his Hortor bandmate Azmaveth's throat-ripping shrieks.

All in all, it ends up sounding a little too much like a copy of his main band, as well as Beeroth. While tracks like "Sacraficio Eterno" are fairly decent stabs at traditional-sounding, keyboard-based black metal, the EP just seems unnecessary. One is far better off purchasing one of Hortor's early releases, or one of Beeroth's. Although, if the sound of early Hortor and Beeroth are too raw for you but you still like the sound, then I suppose this band could fit the bill.