Bleeding Fist - Death's Old Stench (2014)

Earlier run-ins with Bleeding Fist's 2010-2011 EP material did not prove illuminating, but this Death's Old Stench compilation, which collects a bunch of raw, unreleased content written over the past few years, has a stronger allure which can not only be attributed to some superior riff choices, but the very production 'flaws' which contribute to its overall atmosphere. The Slovenians have long championed the bestial aspects of black metal, channeling them into something unwashed, ugly and abusive, but that's just not a winning formula when the songwriting is the sort you've heard a thousand times before. While a comp and not a standard studio record, and likely to have some inconsistency in the mix of individual tracks, Death's Old Stench is one of those offerings upon which a perceived 'weakness' to some actually transcended into a strength of my own experience.

I'm of course talking about the distant, uneven mix of instruments here which often favors the volume of the drums over the vocals and guitars ("Holy Saint of Death"), or the very opposite ("Blackened Illumination") where they can only be heard tinnily rifling away under the ominous atmosphere of vocals and tremolo picked guitars. There is material here which seems infinitely more dramatic and creepy than what I've encountered before on Devil's Ferox or Macabrum Bestia ex Abyssus, and much can be credited to the vocals of Hellscream which shift between the nihilistic predatory rasps so typical to the genre and some yawning, clean chanted passages which often arrive unexpected in the midst of what is otherwise a traditional black metal 101 tune. Rhythm guitars are extremely raw, and often just cut off at the end of a song rather than using a studio fade-out; the riffs are hardly unusual, but provide the necessary balance of melody and malevolence which sculpted the black metal field of the early to mid 90s into such a huge thing. I don't really hear a lot of bass here, which was probably a conscious choice, but might have otherwise added a lot more depth and atmosphere, however that's my only hangup with the production aesthetics (or lack thereof).

From a pacing standpoint, the album might have just been a full-fledged release, since the alternations between incendiary blasphemy and more moderately paced, melancholic tempos really feel 'rounded' and complete, and there are a number of evil sounding intro/interlude pieces which are basically spoken word with the chanted vocal tone and then a lot of reverb. Only the mix of various pieces lacks cohesion, but the songs all flow with the consistency of liquid hellfire, or rather the heat vapors coming off some molten river in the Underworld and then wafting about its vaulted subterranean ceilings. Raucous enough to appeal to those genre addicts who favor demo level recordings, but definitely tighter and more fulfilling than just any random rehearsal-sounding record where you can barely make out anything but hissing noises and screams. I won't go as far as to say I was impressed, but as someone who certainly has an audio fetish for the primitive roots of the medium, which carried into some of my favorite albums (old Bathory, Darkthrone, etc), this was a fairly immersive 48 minutes of material which will hopefully translate into any future studio efforts.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.bleeding-fist.com/

Bleeding Fist - Devil's Ferox EP (2011)

It might just be that I've been spoiled through the years, but I must admit I've grown tired of hearing the same thing over and over, to the point that it becomes a predictable washout. Such is the case for Slovenians Bleeding Fist, who have shown in the past a capability to create some raw, punishing black metal with dire atmosphere and cryptic if cliche Satanic occult lyrics. They continue to do so with their latest EP, Devil's Ferox, yet another in a ceaseless tirade of releases that draws upon but does not significantly alter or elaborate upon the formula manifest through Venom, Bathory, Mayhem, and other primal, old school thrash, death and black metal that countless acts have channeled into the present.

Now, from this opening paragraph, you might assume that I hated this disc, but that's not the case. Bleeding Fist are not bad. The band is clearly competent at conjuring their wall of vapid force, straight laced storms of sin ala "Monuments of Desecration" or the 7-minute title track, which breaks into some half-cooked rocking thrust. Hellscream's rasping has a way of echoing out across the din of the black metal clamor with appropriate agony, but the riffs below are in general little more than uninteresting noise played at high speeds without memorable patterns of notes. Glistening, 'evil' extractions of chords and shadowy atmosphere pervade the 26 minutes, but despite its authenticity, there is no glaring malevolence or subtlety within. The band's "Black and Violent" tribute to legendary Italians Death SS is perhaps the most distinctly morbid piece on the album, but even this is unable to hang on to its qualities for very long.

If you're a stickler for the traditional, raw black metal appeal then I can't see any reason to tout Bleeding Fist as anything more than another random draw from the Satanic sweepstakes. I don't hear a ton of this style coming out of Slovenia, so there's a hellish scrap of novelty, but I had hoped this EP might be an improvement over last year's Macabrum Bestia Ex Abyssus, which I also didn't take to. Not the case, and I fear Devil's Ferox will be yet another of the blasphemous and faceless objects among the heaping hordes of doomed obscurity. Never actively offensive, never bad at what they do, just not that compelling in the end.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

http://www.bleeding-fist.com/