Live Ritual, Forest Ablaze 2009

I find myself very attracted to all these extreme minimal and raw black metal acts and Xilentium seems to know the secrets of art alot. Just recently I discovered them and I was fed more than enough with their 2008 Demo meaning that I was positively pre-occupied when I heard about this release. A DVD? Well... that is something.

For various reasons I have a big respect towards bands that keep releasing their work in a total diy manner and as simple as it can be, tapes, CD-r's etc, straight to the point and without all the fancy and maybe useless paraphernalia we are hooked with lately (aka the die-hards to name one). A simple CD-r, a slim-case and just a xeroxed, two-pages booklet; here we go. Xilentium release their work that way reminding us the old and pure times of the past, the pre-die hard era. Only the medium is changed, so "Live Ritual, Forest Ablaze 2009" is actually a DVD-r and in fact a very powerful one. Obscured by it's simplicity making things really elevated after you press the play button.

Six tracks, endless, in a row, like continuous vomit outbursts. This alone gives a whole new perspective to what you'll see and the way these tracks are executed amazes me the most. Besides the great music there's this total anti-rock star attitude of the band, no mosh-pit, not even any crowd can be seen until the very end where we can hear some people, no track introductions, no fan worshiping, no underground commercialism, just a definite ritual of blackness in it's purest form. A direct hammer-blow of raw, cold, minimal, excruciating black metal annihilation. As I said, just the basics in all aspects are ruling here, nothing more and nothing less. The actual sound of this DVD remains extremely raw but very much listenable and furthermore very much enjoyable. This is not for documentary reasons only, you can actually enjoy it a lot. A deep esoteric war which lurcks in the sonic realms of Burzum, Ildjarn, maybe Bone Awl and the likes. For almost half an hour you will witness the true perspective of this band, that is by the vision as well and you will be punished and treated with a blast of Silentium's suicidal anthems; that is a true live ritual, stone cold and ice born. The lack of a proper menu is the only drawbreak I can find, since a very basic one will do. Since they've release it with a cover and such, a DVD menu would be great to complete the whole package but whatever.

In any case these two guys, a guitarist and a drummer, are very true in what they do and that can be seen in this DVD, really, it can be experienced. I knew that from when I first listened to them, they have something, but now after seeing how they perform live, my respect towards them is growing ever since. Be fast though, there are only 66 copies of it so act fast and wise, this thing costs nothing and it gives a lot. Released by Black Metal Cult Records, which is their own label. Watch out, they keep releasing some serious stuff, Xilentium being one of them. In the moment I can only grab another beer cause outside is hot like hell, it's noon, I'm cooling my head with a bloody freezing machine, I sit back and enjoy my guts with them. Salut!