If you can get past the diabolical cover art (seriously, this kinda stuff is still a thing?) then Svart Crown’s third offering is a solid blackened death record that’s certainly a little look if time allows. These French chaps have been sitting on the fringes of the Gallic extreme scene for many a year and whilst they aren’t exactly breaking the fourth wall with their heavy as heck drives, they definitely have a little je ne c’est quoi about them that makes their furious pitches and wild howls worth checking out.
Profane exists within disturbed wails and pounding rhythms of dying humanity and pushes Svart Crown ever further in terms of writing and style and the tangible weight of sickness pushes down from above throughout the course of this rampaging work. ‘Manifestatio Symptoms’ sets out Svart Crown’s stall immediately with an introduction that showcases technical ability and the desire to twist and turn with anger and hatred. Seguing slyly into ‘Genesis Architect,’ Profane forces its rage to a focused point of fury with tight riffs, toe-tapping drum work and low, guttural vocal lines from JB Le Bail.
A precise anger works throughout Profane, cutting with sharply rendered guitar flicks and angular rhythms of blackened, incandescent fire and ‘In Utero: A Place of Hatred Of Threat’ is a fucking monstrous assault on the sense – heavy and pulsing with a distinct malevolence, it seeps into every pore, all dirt-laden and gross and pregnant with absolute wrath. The title track bursts with pure malice and the threatening atmosphere slithers with slimy resonance and filthy, grimy terror right down to the closing notes of the grossly titled ‘Revelation: Down Here Stillborn.’
Profane is foul and disgusting and sordid and accurately portrays the hidden stench of humanity that lies on the surface of life. Delve into the corruption.
Cheryl Carter
7.5/10