Malhkebre - Revelation (2014)

If, like myself, you had experienced this French band's 2006 EP Prostration, then you'd know to expect some rather uncanny, ugly as excrement black metal which doesn't so much live by conventions as it tends to sodomize them with some charismatic, off the wall vocals and occasional weird riffs. We're not talking Peste Noire levels of oddness in how the songs are structured and executed, but clearly these guys are only a few categories removed from that level of brilliance and they're going to stand out to you for that very reason. Like the image on the cover art, you will feel as if something, maybe a meathook, maybe an old rusty axe, was forced or hacked into your being numerous times, and while Malhkebre might seem just as goofy as they are evil thanks to the vocal style, Revelation deserves accolades for its homegrown black metal aesthetics and careful contrast of unruly dissonance and more straightforward tremolo picked sequences.

The lo-fidelity of this recording gives the impression of hearing it in a jam room, organic and natural and completely unprocessed. Sometimes that means the vocalist has to struggle a little to attain the level of grotesqueness that the instruments flourish in, but it really highlights the hysteric precision of the drumming, the lighter, almost melodic groove of the bass lines and a bevy of riffs that range from full-bore blinding speed chords which resemble their Scandinavian forebears (Mayhem, Bathory, etc) to the slower, creepier components which breathe a little more malevolence into the work as a whole. Vocalist Eklezjas'Tik Berzerk growls out in this outrageous bark, which in spots will sound more guttural and serious, at others like a spectral moaning, and other yet almost seem like the guy is completely loaded, collapsing over himself in some alleyway, rolling about in the filth and offal of humanity and just reveling in it. Nowhere does this performance feel contrived or excessively planned out in advance, there's an almost sporadic, angry and passionate nature to this that oozes fucking character and had me wondering what the hell was he going to do next? Some might argue that it doesn't feel like he's always taking things seriously, but the fact is I'm going to remember this approach a lot more than the last 20 copycat black metal raspers who sound like Satyr, Ihsahn or Fenriz...and that's really part of the reason I also like Famine's style so much.

I don't know if I'd call the riffing 'inventive', per se, but it definitely cycles through a number of interesting variations with jazzier minor keys and vile melodies that blend in a little ugly death metal influence into the more ritualistic black metal encounters. There are tunes like "IHSV" which are tour de forces of absurdity and violence that play out like a more primitive alternative to 21st century Deathspell Omega, and there are also a few experimental interludes like "Dogma" which is like distorted martial noise with growled French narrative, or "Hystérie révélatrice - Part I", where it sounds like some unfortunate woman is about to get jumped and murdered while in the midst of her passions. Really, the entirely of Revelation is like a drugged up tactile exhibition of obscure occult rituals being performed in the midst of an orgy in a catacomb through which all the depravity and sewage of humanity sifts. It's not immediately memorable when dissected down to an individual 'riff' or 'song' component, but the whole thing just seems like you were up late at night watching some schlock giallo or snuff horror, something that you know you shouldn't get involved with and yet cannot turn your eyes (or in this case, ears) away from. Drunk off its own debasement and fuckery.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/malhkebre

Malhkebre - Prostration EP (2006)

The sadistic, seductive cover to this French band's EP promises a pentagram of lascivious filth, an aural excavation into deep, diabolic demesnes which shall indulge both the flesh and the deviant mind, twin heralds of lust and pain that raise their spears to the glory of the unholy. The music is not far behind this, a disgusting, distraught sequence that merges the traditional with despondent song structures, trawling, troll-like vocal ruminations and oppressive atmosphere delivered through both the surging of the guitars and the humble, organic production. This is not your average, necrotic level of toilet trained anti-studio submission, but a straightforward and contemptuous trek from the instruments to the ear canals, and let madness take any who falter.

Prostration was a 2006 release, limited to a small run of mini-LPs, seeing resurrection at the capable hands of Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions this year. Perhaps it's the sign of future terrors to transpire, or the mere archaeological digging of a near miss on the radar of the cult conscience, being masochistically bombarded by thousands of such efforts every bleeding year. Whatever the case, I'm glad I caught the opportunity to indulge here, because this is a frenzied and exotic dance of rhythmic blades that hints at strong potential. The band, bearing sharp edged pseudonyms like Shamaanik B., Messiatanik Armrek, Kristik A.K. and Eklezjas'Tis Berzerk cut pretty deeply with this EP, a mere 23 moments of suicidal intensity that never wears out its welcome, burrowing itself into your personal fears and dementia like the closing walls of a claustrophobic nightmare.

Hyperactive, savage discord and fast, flowing bass exercises dominate "Obscurus Religiosus", like a chamber of asylum inmates shut off from their oxygen supply, flailing away at the walls and one another in a grisly display of futile self-preservation. The vocals are a mix of the expected, gnarled rasping and some deeper death grunts, and this only adds to the schizoid matrix of despair from which the band toasts your demise. "Première Louange" would be what happened if Attila Csihar invaded Voivod's 1988 recording sessions, tripping the band out on whatever he had handy, like paint thinner, while sneaking into the vocal booth to vomit all over a rehearsal test track. "Fidèles Serviteurs" channels loose walls of horrified, godless rasping through a chaotic labyrinth of confusion, a tumult never transcending save to throttle you in a slightly higher pitch. Let's not forget the opener "Nothingness Way", and its circular, frightening ritual chants against which some unidentified noise clamors, before the most accessible, raging guitar rhythms on the album manifest.

Just when you think you've heard it all, and well, you probably have, yet another French band comes along to unzip their collective flies and dump their transitive genes into the studio womb, and though Malhkebre might not be 100% unique, they certainly twist and wind their influences into an impressively distressed whole. This is filthy music for sinners. Demon fluffers. Dead-inside priests of perdition. Surfers on the vortex to the abyss. Unsanitary archangels of pestilence and plague. I hope this is not the last we've heard of it.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.malhkebre.org/malhkebre/index.php