Mortuus Infradaemoni - Imis Avernis (2009)

The band totally had me at the cover art here, for I truly love to stare at labyrinthine abyssal cityscapes while I am listening to black metal, dark ambient and other forms of 'extremity'. It all goes back to sessions of Into the Pandemonium worship for me. So I admit that it may have prepped me up for something more atmospheric than the rather bare bones, savage strategy at play.

Mortuus Infradaemoni are a German black metal band and they play a lot like many of their peers: straightforward, with no perks or gimmicks, black metal in the vein of Mayhem, Dark Funeral and others who keep it real. There are only two members of the band, Nathaniel and Profanatitas, both formerly of fellow Germans Lunar Aurora. The tracks seem to alternate between very mundane and dull, to face-shredding misanthropic purism. For example, first track "Obscuritas Ubique Et In Aeternum" barrels through almost 10 minutes of blast beat/speed picked repetition without ever truly invoking any ferocity. Yet "Darkland", not much different in style, is more effective with its haunting sneers and a few subtle chord shifts which flayed my flesh clean. "Imis Avernis", the title track, centers on some slower chug riff that aren't very good, and doesn't get much better even when it picks up speed. "Bastard" and "Merihim" deliver a pure photocopier black metal beatdown, moving at rapid pace and reminiscent of much of the loyaly to its core influences that perpetuated much of the mid to late 90s scene. "Der Tod" is another devastator.

The album's sound is effectively raw and the band certainly comes across as a horde of savage barbarians who take no compromise as they offer libations to the occult. There aren't any real surprise riffs that come out and snag you, the entire effort is quite predictable but this is not always a bad thing. I can't recall the band's previous album in order to make any comparisons, but I can only recommend this to fans of 100% straightforward black metal of the grimmest, no hope variety.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

http://www.colddimensions.de/ (label)