Grim Arcane Winds

A South American black metal album limited to 500 copies probably brings a lot of stereotypical ideas to mind, and I'd like to say that, for once, they're all completely correct.

Okay, I'm kidding, but only slightly. Gexerott's music is competent but otherwise perfectly content to reiterate standard black metal tropes throughout the running time of 'Grim Arcane Winds'. Sure, occasionally the band will throw a slight curveball at you, like how the title track is an acoustic number placed second in the tracklist, but mostly Gexerott's music is entirely beholden to the standard elements of the Norwegian scene set in motion so long ago. I guess it's fortunate that they abandon most of the bad trad and thrash influences that a lot of South American black metal groups have, but what we're left with isn't anything special.

Tremolo riffs, fast thrash beats, and snarling vocals dominate 'Grim Arcane Winds', and the execution of none of those various elements of the music ends up being very remarkable. Melodically this is firmly rooted in the most well-known works of bands like Mayhem or Darkthrone, but, just as unsurprisingly, is devoid of the unique elements which make those bands what they are. Gexerott's take on the Norwegian masters is the stripped down black metal variety of black metal with no real distinguishing elements other than being part of the genre the band is paying tribute to. Nothing on this release is bad, just still; the riffs are enjoyable but forgotten almost instantly, the production is relatively raw but not excruciatingly so (though the frustrating lack of a bass drum is a bit annoying), and the technical performances are capable enough but neither mechanical nor sloppy enough to stick in your mind. Even now I'm having trouble remembering what this album actually sounds like; hell, I have trouble remembering what a previous riff sounded like thirty seconds after hearing it.

While I could chalk this up as yet another release which reiterates black metal convention while not actually contributing anything to the genre (and I do write it off in this manner to some degree), this doesn't seem as malevolently lazy to me as a lot of similar releases in this vein. Certainly it's not very exciting or creative, but the band seems to have a tiny bit more integrity about them than a band like Kythrone who seem to have actually looked up 'black metal' on Wikipedia and copied the article word-for-word in album form. Certainly I'm not going to suggest that Gexerott's album is in any way a necessary purchase for all but the most dedicated black metal maniacs, but it's inoffensive enough that I can't bring myself to come down on it too hard. It's perfectly competent, but other than that entirely forgettable.