71st part of short reviews.
IMPALED NAZARENE – Eight Headed Serpent
Year of release: 2021
Label: Osmose Productions
Rating: 6,3 / 10
I started listening to the IMPALED NAZARENE with a terrible delay - to tell the truth, only last year. 12-13 years ago, after seeing their video clip, I thought it was some kind of bullshit, and the Finns firmly entered my list of "no-go" -groups. When I got to their discography in 2020, I realized that I was very wrong. IMPALED NAZARENE is an example of a band that is not only bold and unique, but also one that has not lowered the bar for ten albums, no less. In fact, it was only in the very latest works that they moved away from boozy metal into some kind of second-rate Swedish-like bullshit. Given the 7-year gap between the last albums, the band could have realized their mistake, but this did not happen. “Eight Headed Serpent” turned out to be not at all bright and not very diverse album, and there isn't much to write about. Spiteful, but somehow suppressed music, as if it was recorded at morning after three night shifts in a row. Even the rock and roll manifesto "The Nonconformists” sounds false. If you do not know in advance, then you will not say that this is IMPALED NAZARENE. The spirit of musical hooliganism has been lost. Mediocre album.
P.S. An unpleasant moment: there is a high probability that IMPALED NAZARENE quietly jumped off the Steelfest-2022 festival when they felt they could be banned at German festivals because of that (again). No official announcements have been made so far, but Steelfest has disappeared from the band's touring schedule for the near future. If this is true, what are the cost of all their big words and the press release for the Osmose which proclaims that the Finns have come to fuck up miserable brat, posers and SJW junkies with their "cancel culture"?
IFRINN – Caledonian Black Magick
Year of release: 2021
Label: The Sinister Flame
Rating: 6,6 / 10
Black Metal from the UK, right? I have already forgotten the last time I encountered such a phenomenon - either paganism or some kind of insane crap parasitizing on aesthetics is coming from there. The cover of this EP refers to "Transilvanian Hunger", but there is no musical similarity here. The project bases its sound on lingering riffs, and under these sounds, a man in a groaning voice broadcasts something infernal. I suspect IFRINN is related to BARSASKETH and BELLICISTE because there are enough similar moments. All in all, it's a good release but I will not lie - I have heard this more than 200 times already.
SACROCURSE – Supreme Terror
Year of release: 2021
Label: Shadow Records
Rating: 7,3 / 10
“One of the underground’s best-kept secrets”, fuck me!!! Every time I see this phrase in a press release, I want to immediately erase the promo folder from my computer and throw myself out the window. The most important thing is that in this case we are not talking about some useless bunch of crooks, but about a decent project from Mexico, whose albums were released on Hells Headbangers and Iron Bonehead. SACROCURSE offers very convincing war metal, rattling machine-gun bursts of percussion and scorching tops of the heads with riff tracers. The musician maintains a balance between aggression and sanity; the music remains extremely intense, but each chord and drum beat is perceived as a separate action. Recommended for fans of BLASPHEMY, MORBOSIDAD, IMPIETY.
VOID MOON – The Autumn Throne
Year of release: 2020
Label: Sun & Moon Record
Rating: 6 / 10
Doom Metal from Sweden, existing in the realm of the traditional doom, but transcending it a little. The music is quite heavy, but dynamic and not aggressive. The vocals are clean and upbeat. Recording and performance are perfect, the songs themselves are nothing special. Of course, this is closer to SOLITUDE AETERNUS or CANDLEMASS, but most of the material reminded me of the lightweight version of DOOM: VS. After all, this is a modern doom, it does not have a retro aura.
ORDER OF NOSFERAT – Arrival of the Plague Bearer
Year of release: 2021
Label: Purity Through Fire
Rating: 5,8 / 10
Vampiric (read, wamphyrrick) Black Metal is an inexplicable trend that has swept extreme metal and dark ambient in recent years. Basically it is done by the American blm degenerates who listened to LLN too much, by these rapping genderless creatures with tattoos on their stupid faces. Yesterday they played DS"BM", and before that - metalcore, not they are into rap and Black metal. But sometimes more decent people do it. ORDER OF NOSFERAT are decent people indeed (the drummer from SERPENTFYRE, the main performer from SARASTUS and SARKRISTA, bands with terrible names, but edible). And of course Purity Through Fire would not allow himself to publish some faggot. The music of the group, as it should be in this segment of the style, is raw and melodic. However - oh, Germany - the author did not have the balls to shit the sound as it should be, to make it really archaic. Having similarities with the luminaries DROWNING THE LIGHT and BLACK FUNERAL, ORDER OF NOSFERAT lose to them in the authenticity of nosferatu atmosphere. And the fact that almost all the songs are filled with the same dashing rhythms is rapidly blurring the boundaries between “Arrival of the Plague Bearer” and the previous ten thousand PTF releases that sound exactly the same. A cowardly approach to sound and total cloning are so typical of Germany nowadays. Just can't take it anymore.
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