Formed by guitarist Morgan “Evil” Steinmeyer Håkansson in Norrköping, Sweden in 1990, Black Metal act Marduk took their name from an ancient Babylonian sky god and immediately attempted to become “the most blasphemous band in the world”. And, to be fair, releasing a demo called Fuck Me Jesus was a pretty good way of getting that message across.Continue reading
What’s in a name? Well, when you’re a Black/Death Metal band from the highly religious country of Lebanon, whose original name of Chaotaeon could inadvertently be pronounced as “Shayatin” (which translates to “Devils”), then quite a lot, actually.Continue reading
This is a black metal album. I like black metal. It has the occasional death metal moment. Lord Worm is handling the vocals. Fredrik Widigs, current skinsman for Marduk, is laying down the blast beats. On paper this seems awesome. Like really fucking awesome. But yet why after a few listens today doesn’t it feel awesome all the way through?
For those uninitiated, Rage Nucléaire, is Lord Worm’s post-Cryptopsy vehicle for blasphemy and mayhem. And while I’ll always have a spot in my heart for the Cryptopsy days of old, it’s neat to see Lord Worm still active and applying his unique pipes to some other stylings.
Black Storm of Violence (Season of Mist) is the follow-up to Rage Nucléaire’s 2012 aptly-titled debut, Unrelenting Fucking Hatred. All the elements that made that debut so compelling are for the most part still here, including first and foremost Widigs wild drumming. Seriously, this guy can drive home a blast beat. Hence his barbaric displays like ‘Annihilation Frenzy’ and ‘A Sino-American Chainsaw War.’ Or he can slow it down like ‘Goddess of Filth’ or ‘The Deadfall Triptych,’ which also make room for almost melodic passages from guitarist Dark Rage and keyboardist Alvater.
Then Black Storm of Violence starts to lose me. Sounding more like black metal (corpse) paint by numbers than true kvlt. Even Lord Worm’s trademark shrieks and howls are marred by processing. It’s Anaal Nathrakh without the psychotic seventh gear. If anything, Rage Nucléaire could borrow some of the Anaal magic. Aim for shorter, even further needle-in-the-red intense songs.
While the music more often than not runs on the right track, the samples seem more afterthought than ambiance inducing. We are treated to a greatest hits of black metal clichés including classics such as marching soldiers, gunfire, wolves and Hellraiser. When the first line you hear is a sample from a Rob Zombie film, you can’t help but wonder if this feels less Transylvanian Hunger and more Damnation and a Day. Also, I think Charles Manson would really appreciate it if people would stop using his “If I started murdering people…” bit. It sounded cool when Integrity used it in 1995, but at this point even Manson must be sick of it.
This is band that has a great black metal album in them if they focus more on the quality of the songs as opposed to what appears to be truly “evil” or “kvlt.” Lord Worm has already been on a death metal classic, let’s hope he can do it again with black metal.
6/10
HANSEL LOPEZ