Erebus Enthroned - Temple Under Hell (2014)

If the incredibly distinct art style here seems familiar, it's probably that you've seen the work of Russia's Denis Forkas Kostromitin on the latest Behemoth album, The Satanist, or perhaps on the debuts of lesser known acts like Altars and Wrathprayer. I find it incredibly oblique yet alluring, and while I've no idea whether he just has it commissioned or he actually sits through the albums in advance and uses them to summon up imagery, they're almost always a lock for the sounds they herald. The Erebus Enthroned sophomore Temple Under Hell is no exception, a murky concoction of black metal extremity which is true to the purpose of 2011's Night's Black Angel: lightless nihilism, fleshy and misanthropic dissonance, no source of comfort or happiness or warmth anywhere.

In some ways I might define this disc as 'bog standard' it certain doesn't reach far beyond the bounds of its genre, and thus you'll only discern slight differences in production from other works in the field. I certainly felt a few traces of De Mysteriis dom Sathanas-era Mayhem on the first album, and those remain prevalent here, though the music has a bit of an awkward, swarthy eeriness to it that reminds me of the last 3-4 efforts from another Enthroned (the Belgian one). Riffs vary between all-out assaults of cavernous tremolo picked patterns to rolling, churning chords being crested by sprays of gleaming dissonance (as in "Trisagion"), but this whole fucking thing is infernally dark and impenetrable, masked with a caul of gloominess, brutality, and occult hunger. Anyone remember the 'black pudding' monster from D&D? Okay, if those things could wear headphones, this is what they'd probably listen to while they're slinking along the cellars, crypts and corridors of Abyssal shrines and torture chambers. The album title is just too accurate, and if you don't come out of the music feeling less hopeful for your future than you went into it, then congratulations, you are fucking immune to the affectations of the black metal genre.

It's not incredibly unique, once again having components that are drawn from an obvious source or three, but where it might lack in nuance or creativity it compensates with harrowing effectiveness. Plenty of details in the vocal performance, which ranges from growls and rasps to haunted howls and groans, basically whatever manifestations of pure evil the drummer/singer 'N' conjures forth straight form the nether. Guy sounds like a living digderidoo in the middle of the title track, which is perhaps the most explosive piece though it drags a little long at nine minutes. Also want to comment that the bass tone here is great, nice and loud and gives you a morbid substrate for the thinner, dissonant driving guitars that fly all over it; while the drums are more than up to the savage standard of the genre. Blasting effortlessly, but also creating a vast calamity upon which the instruments are forced to sit uncomfortable. Really, Temple Under Hell is just another 'total package' sort of black metal album which should draw in purists who can listen beyond the fact that they probably own this already through its ancestral bloodlines to the mid 90s. Greatness? Perhaps not yet, but I'd say these New South Welshmen have edged out the first album with this offering. Goes well with black candlelight and the consumption of a still-beating human heart.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] 

http://www.seancerecords.com/erebusenthroned/

Erebus Enthroned - Night's Black Angel (2011)

I'd read quite a few good things about this Australian black metal outfit's debut, and while the style on exhibit here is hardly 'news', I must say that for once, such early praise is far from empty. There's definitely a Norse or Swedish spin to the composition, somewhere between Mayhem and Emperor, delivered through full bodied riffing, dynamic variation and high production standards, comparable to many of the 1st tier genre staples. I would actually draw a parallel to their countrymen Nazxul, only without the symphonic streak coursing through their latest, Iconoclast. Sure, there are a lot of more unique artists in the spectrum with a more memorable admixture of ingredients, but Night's Black Angel is raging and competent enough to win some attention from genre adherents, even though several traits feel standard to the medium (like the vocals).

One of the most noteworthy characteristics of the album is the lack of dependency on sheer blasting material. They can accelerate at will, but instead they incorporate lots of mid-paced, harrowing grooves and spikes of fibrous tremolo picked riffs with tails of bright dissonance. Dense, efficiently thrashing mute-streams that jerk the listener about like a puppet in the grasp of the devil. There are also arching, glorious bridges in the riffs of "Enthroning the Harbinger of Death" "Zealotry in Death" and the title track. Threads of dark, droning ambiance are often used to roll out the black, thriving guitars, but there is one track here ("Temple of Dispersion") which is sheer instrumental ambient horror. Perhaps the best songs are those with the slicing, blustering rhythms like "Nil (Solve non Coagula)" and "Blackwinged", both of which recall the underrated Swedish crew Mörk Gryning in their latter stage of modern propulsion, or several of their peers (Marduk, Dark Funeral, etc.)

There is nothing truly subtle about this debut, by which I mean it's not the sort of record where you'll keep hearing spectral haunts and revelations through repeated listens. They dress to impress immediately. It's quite easily ingested upon the first encounter, and thus it's not incredibly compelling in the long term, despite the high level of precision and competence felt through all the musicians' performances. I will say that their lyrics are fucking ace, though, and certainly they help ramp up what might otherwise be mistaken for a merely average effort. An incredible amount of thought has been placed in each passage, with incendiary incantations to various occult subjects that are threaded through a dreadful, nihilistic discourse that meshes well with the actual composition of the music. Erebus Enthroned could certainly gestate further to write a darker, more memorable onslaught, but I can't deny that Night's Black Angel provides at least a strong foundation from which to launch further atrocities.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (a baptism in blood and ash)

http://www.seancerecords.com/erebusenthroned/