Apices Abyssus

I’ve partaking in plenty of local bands in my day, and if I may be frank I’d had the tenacity to enjoy only a few of them. I wouldn’t want to mention who I generally like and dislike to not invoke the unnecessary wrath of groups and fans alike…but as it stands the local scene can be quite stagnant in the overall talent department save for a few diamonds in the shit pile. But it’s all in how one looks at it, and taken band-by-band.

Take these guys, for instance…

There was a term I once heard that sums up these guys rather well…"clean black metal". Essentially, black metal that has more emphasis on acceptability, with nicer performance and only a few elements of the bitter hatred once prevalent in the DARKTHRONEs and MAYHEMs of a previous generation. Bands from DIMMU BORGIR to HECATE ENTHRONED gave us the start of the "clean black metal" movement, using PG-13 rated blasphemy and enough melody and glistening production to hearken a more well-meaning audience (though the latter of two evils still had enough integrity to not turn into a burned out shell of once former glory, like the formers of the world), and this MEPHISTO band seems to have taken such a style in an attempt to make it their own. Blackened in absolute approach, but with enough outside influences to prevent complete pigeon-holing, MEPHISTO strikes out at the listener as a wrecking ball of riffs, galloping double-bass drums and acidic croaks with enough moxie to very well give the group a fair shake at rubbing elbows with their genre’s higher-ups. Take a good dose of DRAGONLORD, two spoonfuls of "The Gathering"-era TESTAMENT, and splashes of mid-era EMPEROR, shake at a mid-paced tempo, throw in a few melodic death guitar riffs, occasional blast beats (but not enough to get old), and serve on a blood-soaked platter of severed angel’s wings and you’ve got the recipe for a profound and rather multi-faceted "clean"ness, from the bitter and heavy "End of Days", to the epic riff-fest "Hunter", and the ghoulish "Mephisto".

All in all MEPHISTO gives the listener a fine example of easily digestible black metal with enough glitz to avoid corpse-painted truncation. A pretty good example that not all USBM is watered-down BURZUM worship. Grab yourself a chaser and enjoy.