Angelburner- Impure Sacrament of the Underworld.

 What is Black Metal? My uderstanding of Black Metal is that it is darkness forged into a sonic weapon. The primary constituent is hatred. Hatred in a misanthropic sense. When successfully created it walks away from all that is aesthetically pleasing into raw and pure rage and darkness. This used to be common place but as I have gotten older, this is rarer to find in the style.

This is partially because it became more accepted as a form of Heavy Metal. This is very far from where it was when I first started exploring it as a teenager. It was reviled by metalheads and normies alike. If you ever pickup the book Petrified: Under the Full Moon (which, if you are interested in the history of Black Metal, I recommend you do) you can read an interview with Thorns about his own experience with listening to second wave Black Metal. In that interview he describes delving into Black Metal as further isolating yourself from others. I have to echo that premise. This did change somewhere in the late 90's- early 00's, for good and ill. It meant that Black Metal was given a place as an accepted form of Heavy Metal but it also removed the potent darkness and raw hatred in the genre. that's not to say that there aren't bands that still do capture that spirit, there are just less of them. 

So this is a release, I randomly ran across on the internet and decided to give it a listen. Angelburner is an international collective. They play midpaced and riffy Black Metal much closer to the stuff I was listening to as a young Black Metal head. Its dark and rage filled. Each song is anchored by an almost doom metal oriented drum style, completely eschewing blast beats entirely. The songs feature strong power chord riffing as the centerpiece for them which gives them a darker and primitive atmosphere. Here and there, the songs do speed up but never above a speed akin to early thrash. Eerie keyboards float over the proceedings adding to  the crypt- like atmosphere presence here. The songs are  "amateurish" but in the best way possible. The vocals are a fog-choked croak that supplement the already dark and evil feelings that radiate from the songs. The production is raw as all Hell but that just increases the overall effect.

Equally headbang- worthy and dark as pitch black night, this is a fantastic black metal record that immediately calls to the early days of second wave Black Metal without ripping anyone off. I can absolutely say I love this record but if you're more of a fan of more professional production, I would not suggest to you. However, if you, like me, desperately long for a time when Black Metal was raw, hate-filled and could summon darkness while getting a good headbang out of the listener, then this record is for you. 

Highlights include:  "Magna Mater Daemonium", "Agios Baphomet", and "Satanic Werewolf Order" but this is great morbid Black Metal all around and I will be watching this project with great interest. Thanks again for reading and this train will keep rolling so look for new reviews soon. Bang or be banged!

https://arsmaligne.bandcamp.com/album/impure-sacrament-of-the-underworld