Banquet in the Darkness

Melodic death metal has always been a controversial topic to bring, you either love it or despise it, there's no in-betweens. In the case of Intestine Baalism however, it seems like this band garnered a lot of respect and love, even by the utmost edgelord keyboard warriors you could find roaming in the internet. I don't take too much interest in the genre of melodeath, because this entire genre feels like a game of Russian roulette without you knowing if there's even any bullet in the chambers at all. Banquet In The Darkness were added to my catalogue when I randomly came across Intestine Baalism at the point where I've been listening to countless death metal records and yet craving for even more. At the first glance I didn't think too much of this album before listening to it, because I thought that I will eventually forget half of the songs because of it's mediocrity. My thoughts were proven wrong exactly seconds after listening to the entire album when almost every riffs lives rent-free in my head.

Musically speaking, the mixing is a little inconsistent, probably because it only took one guy in the span of 6 years to mix the album, which makes sense. The songwriting is consistent, yet never feels boring as each song has their own idea and direction that makes the album feels both dynamic and stick to the menacing atmosphere. They combine catchy melodies and dissonant themes flawlessly and pretty balanced too, none of the transition feels out place or forced. The guitar tone is reminiscent of those iconic Swedish chainsaw sound combined with constant tremolo picking is a great choice for this brutally somber vibe of the album. I don't really pay much attention to the bass play, as its job is only to cover the lower frequencies that I can't really hear. Some of the drumming is kind of annoying though, there's not too much interesting things that I can pick from their drum work aside from the fact that the drummer loves to play those "dus-tak-dus-tak" D-beat you'll find in powerviolence, and overdoing it for basically half of the album can get stale very quickly. And finally the vocals, oh boy where do I start? For the lack of better description, they sound demonic. The vocals are basically the cherry on top for the atmosphere of the entire album, combining deep growl and high screeching that fits perfectly with the music and the evil lyricism.

Overall, this is probably the most memorable melodeath album that I've been listening on repeat recently, each song is well executed. The melodic and chaotic energy is the signature style of Intestine Baalism, and I'm glad that they embrace this kind of sound and they can fully utilize it in Banquet In The Darkness as many consider this album as their darkest album.