Reinvigorated Terror

The debut demo from USBM entity Natürgeist, Reinvigorated Terror earns its title up-front as A-side "Catatonic Stupor" bursts forth with sounds truly horrific and unsettling - be they the spectral shrieks and lupine howls of the band's sole member or the ghostly atmosphere of each arpeggiated lead and chromatic rhythm line. Indeed, there are similarities between the feelings conjured by this demo and by an especially well-made horror film: it will linger in your mind and lurk around every corner.

On the flip side of the record is the rather ostentatiously titled "Purgatorial Transmission of Acts Beyond Reason." It is perhaps not as disquieting as its mate, but it is still a worthy successor to that track and the two songs make an excellent pairing. Both are quite fast, at least in terms of the wrist- and ankle-punishing drums, but the more moderate harmonic rhythm and mausoleic reverb make them feel slow. Perhaps this is part of why the music so effectively channels fear - we hear something that is at once lumbering and sprinting. It is uncanny, it is outside the norm of experience, and so it disturbs.

For similar reasons, I do appreciate the cover art - at least in the West, frontal male nudity remains a taboo far beyond that of blasphemy or violence (why this is I can't be sure - I see my own cock in the mirror every morning and it doesn't put me in convulsions). I admire the artist's willingness to take steps others would stop short of.

Shattered expectations are a theme here, and this 7" is uncharacteristically successful as both a continuation of well-known genre tropes and a declaration of the artist's own goals within that genre - indeed, it is among the best American black metal I've heard in years.

Hail USBM!