The Blasphemous Sinner of Damnation Impurity

I stumbled upon this marvel by sheer chance, because Colombian releases are very hard to come by here in Argentina. Sure; I had checked the CD on YouTube before, and it had failed to impress me, because it sounded like a tinny demo there. Not so on my stereo; I will expand on that later. I rarely comment on the booklets, but the one that comes with this CD has to be seen to be believed; super-thick, high-quality, glossy paper with great sepia artwork, member pics and lyrics.

I can understand where the previous reviewer's disappointment comes from, for this is hardly a strictly BM record, let alone a second wave one; no double kick drum rolls, no tremolo picking, no high-pitched shrieking. Instead, these trio treat us to a furious and primitive first-wave, late 80s approach, that combines elements inspired on hardcore punk (think Discharge), grindcore (think Nasum) and of course, the mighty Sarcófago, but never ripping off any of them.

The drums are startlingly thunderous, the bass is trebly, but totally audible, and the guitar is at times just a treble-free droning sound in the background, except when the axman resorts to his volume pedal. There are no rhythm or second guitars on the recording, nor it would seem they had overdubbed anything. On the contrary, it would seem as if the band jammed this on a pro studio. Solos are not in abundance, but when they rear their head, they do so in a loud, short, trebly, killer way, and they simply ANNIHILATE. They are far from technical, mind you, but are not simple affairs, and they clearly show the guitarist can play his instrument way beyond the boundaries of this particular subgenre. Vocals are not the typical low growl, for the singer's register is not deep enough, but this only adds to the charm.

The first two tracks are OK, just not that engaging (hence my knocking off that final 10%), but from the third on, all hell breaks loose. Maybe the songs lack direction and coherence, for they alternate catchy grooves with ultra chaotic sections, with no apparent pattern to it, but that only added to my excitement, since I am a huge crust, punk, and grind fan as well.

The sound and mix on this album is so incredibly good, both tonally and dynamically, I was able to play it flat through my floorstanders without the aid of my equalizer or subwoofer; a rare occurrence. The lyrics are mostly in English, mega-blasphemous and anti-christian. Except 2 of the nine songs, that are sung in Spanish, the rest are in English. I found myself consistently liking the Spanish-sung songs better. I thought they fit the style much better and that the guys should have composed all the CD in that language, but I guess I cannot have the cake and eat it.

Another thing that may annoy potential listeners, is that most songs have intros made up by horror movie samples, and some are somewhat lengthy. They are absolutely spot on in my opinion, and provide a lot of atmosphere to the album, because at the end of each one, the music starts abruptly to effect, making you jump from your couch, but at five and a half minutes, out of the 34:21 total album duration, they certainly overstay their welcome. My guess is they were that long to pad out what would have otherwise been an EP at under 30'. But I personally enjoyed them to bits.

People expecting a pure, trve kult, conventional BM album, in the vein of Blasphemy or Impurity, WILL be turned off by this CD. If you like crossover of styles, and originality, you will be in for a hell of a treat.

Impaler of Pest is yet another addition to the crowded South American black metal scene. Their first full length is quite predictable. You already know where Impaler of Pest is taking you; a journey filled with mangled bodies and hacked limbs complete with confetti of flesh raining down left and right.

Random samples are used throughout the album. One thing that strikes me is when the band has incorporated an audio clip on ‘Dento del Pentagrama’, which is taken from an Islamic exorcism ritual that actually happened in my home country. It doesn’t matter where these guys get the audio from, but I’m sure they must have seen the video on YouTube or something. Despite extensive use of sound effects, the bulk of the material is lacking in memorable riff, which is one of the problems I have with this debut. The band probably knows this as well as I do, that they are trying to mask what little musical substance with overblown audio samples to make up for the apparent inadequacy. Too much of this can be quite annoying really.

The actual music here consists of repetitive chords played either at high or low speed depending on the intended aggression blurted out by Impaler of Pest. They can be brutal whenever they want to. Some songs feature plodding double bass played at half the tempo. Others see the band blasting their way through with thunderous intensity. This album sounds more like a couple of rehearsal tracks put together in a hasty manner. It also reminds me of Deleted from Sabah but with slightly discernible song structures.

Solos can be found throughout the album, alternating between incoherent shredding wrapped around tremolo-picked chords. While the leads aren’t doing anything spectacular, they do add to that vicious atmosphere on tracks like ‘Satan Has Won’, ‘Morbid Hellcommand’ and ‘Supreme Blackgoat 666’.

Profanity, extreme desecration of all things holy, unshakeable beliefs in the horned lord of bottomless pit; these are things you get when listening to Impaler of Pest. Is there anything here that we haven’t heard of before? Nope. Nothing innovative. While it can be quite tiring to hear bands regurgitate all the same satanic dogma time and again, after all we have no choice but to agree – this is what black metal is all about. Musically speaking, the band doesn’t bring anything new to the table, which by now has been overturned by the influx of other acts hopping on top of it in an attempt to steal the show. Lyrically, it is foul all the same, delivered with absolute disgust and ominous hatred. High-pitched shrieks pop up every now and then but generally, the band favors throaty rasp to deliver their sermons upon a pulpit made of flesh and bones.

Not really a satisfying listening experience as a whole but I can listen to this album when needed just so I can pretend to not hear my Filipino coworkers babbling in their shitty language. You might as well use this album to scare kids away from your front door on Halloween nights.