Out from the Coffin...

In certain circles, the skill of Vomquisseron's sole member Nachzehrer in crafting grim and evil black metal is so self-evident that to lay praises upon any individual work would be redundant. Nevertheless, I lay praise.

In comparison to Nachzehrer (the band, that is), Vomquisseron is noticeably medieval. Old-school dungeon synth appear as interludes in between chord progressions that straddle the line between vampyric opulence and castle-turret mystery. Riffs abound, but are more "black" than "metal" -- they utilize the grammar of extreme metal in service of a sound that is not even especially extreme. This is where the genre really sings for me, at the intersection of antichristian wickedness and antediluvian wistfulness, and Nachzehrer (the artist) is a master of this craft.

The blast beats are perfect, and they too are exactly what I look for in black metal. They're not blisteringly fast, they're not flawlessly in time, they're not even played with double bass drums. It's just simple and ferocious - stompy kick, redlining snare, and washy hihats. It's emblematic of a philosophy found throughout this demo, and increasingly throughout Nachzehrer's ever-widening body of work: black metal should be raw, primitive, abrasive, imperfect. Anyone turned away by those traits deserves to be turned away; this art was never for them. It's for this reason that the basic rock beats in "Traversing the Path of Sin" still work. Anything more complex would be out of place.

Last song "Ancient Blood Yearning for a Forgotten Age" (excellent title notwithstanding) is perhaps the low point of the EP, its few barebones riffs just a bit too similar to one another and its glacial drums just a bit too unsteady; the short epilogue does it no favors as a closing statement. Still, the intention behind the final minutes of this EP is clear and while it may not achieve the hypnotic ambience it aims for, the effort is laudable.

Out from the Coffin... is, expectedly, a brilliant release and the perfect introduction to a new project from the Mamzer Records circle. Already it has yielded another EP, and I anxiously await whatever releases next under the Vomquisseron banner.