Thorns vs. Emperor (1999)

The most exciting and interesting aspect of Thorns vs. Emperor is just how well-integrated its components are. Most split recordings or team-up releases feel segregated due to their traditional formatting. For whatever reasons, geographical or stylistic gulfs, each of the two or more acts will be assigned a 'position' on the track list (CD) or a 'side' if it's being released in vinyl or cassette format. Not the case for this cyber-black extravaganza, which feels more like a collaboration being held directly between Snorre Ruch (billed here as S.W. Krupp) and the members of Emperor. Over the course of 48+ minutes, the two parties deconstruct one another's past glories, their own work, and in some cases, offer up new material.

Granted, not all of the tracks here feel equally revelatory, and I'm quite partial to the Thorns contributions over the Emperor cuts, but this is largely due to the newer material. By this time, Ruch's project had only been heard through demos, so Thorns vs. Emperor was likely its first introduction to the larger underground, and he really delivers. "Melas Khole" is an electronic trudge with poignant, excellent lyrics and shifting industrial percussive currents and swerving bass lines that carry the spikes of dissonant, fragmented black metal licks. "The Discipline of Earth" is a mix of straight black metal bursts and almost drunken narrative over a matrix of whacky, frivolous electro sounds. But "Ærie Descent" is likely the best of his pieces here, a tune that was brought forward and expanded from the Trøndertun demo (1992) and slapped with horns and other atmospherics that truly work themselves upon the listener's conscience. I quite loved the trance-like break at around 1:30, and Satyr from Satyricon does a decent job of slavering this tunes with his hoarse rasp and unnerving, clean vocals.

As for Emperor, they include an martial/industrial intro piece ("Exördium") with deep coils of distorted bass and a gradually building cadence. A crazed deconstruction of their own "I Am the Black Wizards" track known simply as "I Am", which spiritually feels like it inhabits the margin between a Third Reich pep rally and some touring carnival carousel. There is also an entirely instrumental, martial/synthesizer orchestration of "Thus Spake the Nightspirit" called "Thus March the Nightspirit" which feels like the boss battle for some obscure Castlevania or Final Fantasy title. Perhaps more interesting, though, is the metalization of Thorns' "Aerie Descent" which is more compact than the reskinned version Snorre has included. Ihsahn and Samoth have festooned this with lurching, slicing and dissonant riffs that give me the aesthetic impression of attempting to weave through one of those swinging pendulum blade trapped corridors you always see in games or action films.

In return, Snorre has broken down Emperor's "Cosmic Keys to My Creation & Times" into the reductive "Cosmic Keys", taking a few of the guitars and dowsing them in Satyr's spoken word alternative, while a throng of industrial percussion beneath. This was actually my least favorite track on the album, but I'd have to say that the rest of the pieces were quite fascinating to sit through, and though such earlier black metal/industrial experiments do not always hold up for long periods of time, I feel that Thorns vs. Emperor retains some freshness, not unlike those Satyricon electros on their EPs, or Mayhem's "A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun (Part II of II)" from Grand Declaration of War. It's not nearly perfect music, but Thorns and Emperor do prove a near perfect match, and even though the split skews towards the former for its more quality content, this is a collaboration that might have yielded amazing results had they decided to release more.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (do you ask the purpose of your pain?)

http://www.thorns.no/
http://www.emperorhorde.com/

Embrace of Thorns - Prevalence: A Decade of Atomic Genocide (2009)

Prevalence: A Decade of Atomic Genocide is exactly the sort of compilation effort that the fans should get behind, because it does all of the legwork in collecting a good band's out of print, obscure output. I won't promise that all of the material here is quite so impressive as the Embrace of Thorns full-lengths, but it certainly syncs up in terms of its stylistic involvement and you can clearly experience the band's progression into the dark depths of their 2007 debut, ...For I See Death In Their Eyes... and their success in becoming what just might be the best 'old school' or retro sounding death metal band among the entire Hellenic scene.

The album collects the Greeks' first three demos and their side of the 2009 Abominable Ceremonial Torment split (with countrymen Nocturnal Vomit). They seem to be set forth in reverse order, so I'd advise that anyone wishing to mark the band's try and find a way to listen in reverse order. The material from the In Embracing of the Goat split seems to be omitted here, but it's basically the Stench of the Deceased Martyrs demo anyway, so no real loss. What's most amusing is that some of the songs here make even the band's later full-lengths seem rather tame in comparison, so raw and forceful the music and carnal vocals feel, but the songwriting is often just not on par.

From back to front, we start with The Inevitable Twilight of the Judeochristian Lie demo (2003), which features a trio of writhing, rugged black/death metal tracks with both rasped and incredibly ominous guttural vocals. These are arguably mixed in a little loud, stealing away from the mix of the instruments, but then, the riffs are your pretty standard early 90s mesh of chords and tremolo picking without much of an evil direction or impressive selection of notes. "Emerald of Hate" is probably the best of this lot, though "Blinded Whores...Addicted to the Nazarene" has a few moments of enjoyable ineptitude. They've also included the "Satanic Blood" cover (Von), which is more or less a raw rehearsal that feels every bit as crude as the original, but not really matching the band's own studio tracks.

After this is the Chants of Atomic Genocide rehearsal demo (2004), which is more substantial, though much of its content is also reprinted here as the Stench of the Deceased Martyrs EP (also 2004). So you have your choice...an infernal mass of live evil with tinny drums and guitars, ovebearing vocals and admittedly a lot of authentic character. Or the studio incarnation, which is no less atmospheric. I chose the latter, since tracks like "Mass Annihilation Project" and "I Am the Face of Genocide" sound darker through both their black/death metal tribulations and the horrific ambient fixtures. Finally, though, we come to the 2005 split songs: the disturbing, percussion-less resonance of "The Crumbling Realm of Whitewinged Cadavers" (what a title) or the total underworld bulldozer that is "Corpus Christii...Behold Thy Decline", the best and most sinister song on this entire collection, followed by "The Virtuous Whore", which is similar.

I think the only real downside here, if there is any, is simply the redundancy of some of its track order (live and studio versions, often quite close to one another on the playlist), but then...the band and label were concerned with 'completion', which they have achieved. I also appreciate that most of this material was NOT re-released on the debut ...For I See Death In Their Eyes.... The only exception is "Semptinernally Cursing the Weak", but most of that material was newly written for the album, so most of what you hear on Prevalence will be your first exposure, unless you are one of a handful of people who owned or downloaded the demos in advance. Embrace of Thorns have ultimately gathered a victory for their fans, even if these songs are passable for the later stuff.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/embraceofthorns

Embrace of Thorns - Atonement Ritual (2009)

Atonement Ritual is build from the same basic stock as Embrace of Thorns' debut ...For I See Death In Their Eyes... A convocation of primal, evil old school death metal with roots in everything from Incantation, Bolt Thrower, Pestilence, Asphyx, Autopsy and Blasphemy, that last in the straight blasting that often dominates the rhythmic manifesto. This is absolutely the sort of album that will hold appeal to those unwashed, amassing legions who in the past few years have placed the worship back on the 90s forefathers of the genre as opposed to the technical showmanship of modern death. But despite it's large and cavernous trappings, Atonement Ritual is also appreciably varied, with a ton of fast passages and ambient cutaways that make the album feel that much more wide and fulfilling.

As the superb cover image aesthetically implies, this is the stuff of nightmare, pain, blood and suffering with absolutely no hope for redemption, no light at the end of its oppressive bedlam womb. From fore to aft, this is 34.5 minutes of fucking darkness, and about half way through you'll feel your stomach start to quake from the horrors. But the band won't release you that easily, and songs like the death/doom driven "Venom in Veins" or the thick, blasted perversion of the "Ceremonial Rites of Fornication" will easily hold the attention of anyone seeking out such primordial, blasphemous indulgences. The vocals are again a median between Karl Willetts and Martin van Drunen, ghastly and fulfilling, often layered in their torment. The ambient pieces are almost all appropriately terrifying, from the spacey "Litanies of Inversion" to the ritualistic "Impure Orgasm" to the alien-like brooding of the "Altars of Malefic Triumph" outro. These Greeks have conspired here to feast upon the thin sanity of their audience, and to that extent, Atonement Ritual is a triumph.

That's not to say it's perfect...a lot of the riffs wind along predictable courses, and the blast bits can occasionally feel just as monotonous as they would be elsewhere unchecked, but as some cohesive chasm to the domain of the damned, or an underworld overgrown with undeath, you'll not want to excuse yourself for one stinking minute. Atonement Ritual was slightly ahead of the recent tide or retro morbidity, so if you're into other old school proponents like Cemetary Urn, Truppensturm, or Blaspherian, then this is one act of disturbance of which you will surely wish to partake, even if it's not the best of its class. Embrace its thorns, and embrace the horns of its master, and you'll never feel the same way when the lights go out again...

Verdict: Win [8/10] (celebrate vengeance)

http://www.myspace.com/embraceofthorns

Embrace of Thorns - ...For I See Death in Their Eyes... (2007)

They might spend more of their time along the latter aesthetic of the black/death metal axis, but Embrace of Thorns presented a clear quandary in Hellenic extremity due to their grimy, incessant barrage of diabolic, muddied guitar tones and brutal death grunts. Perhaps the nearest and best comparison would be to Canada's Blasphemy, only I found the Greeks' riffs far more of a central focus, and a mite bit stronger than that particular influence. But what really hurls the debut ...For I See Death in Their Eyes... out of easy reach for the band's 21st century peerage is the sheer, tangible ghastliness of the vocalist, 'Archfiend DevilPig' (I'm not kidding), whose guttural clamor is stretched to an abysmal awning as he raises his bloodcurdling tone to a blacker rasp, and back again.

This is one ominous fucking debut, sounding almost entirely as if it were created in some cavern or starless space where the very horrors and terrors that inspired it are constantly reflected back upon the musicians. Nowadays, primordial 90s death metal worship is all the rage with the younger sect of musicians entering the field, and so Autopsy and Incantation sound-a-likes are the flavor of the times. However, Embrace of Thorns feels slightly ahead of that curve, and the velocity at which they perform much of the material seems to represent the 'blacker' element. They do lurch into these staggering, solemn grooves which hinge upon pure doom/death, but the majority of the cuts blast along in a hurry to the limits of the flesh, lower-pitched tremolo riffing cast into a butter churn while the Archfiend opens up the spans of Hell to his agonized, woeful tidings of hellish sacrilege.

...For I See Death in Their Eyes... is admittedly not the most versatile recording, and a lot of the tinny, tiny blast beats feel all the more samey and familiar after a handful of tracks. However, as the album is only about 31 minutes in length, the listener is hardly going to become bored to the point he/she will want to turn it off. Most of the songs teeter around the 2-3 minute length, with a few creepy intros spotted about, and they're fulfilling enough if you can brook a mixture of drawn out, deathly drawns above its rapid, pummeling substrate. The band is quite similar in execution to the Australian group Cemetery Urn or maybe the Texans Blaspherian, so those into one will probably enjoy the other, and in general, those enamored of the whole Nuclear War Now! and Hell's Headbangers stables should also find much to admire.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

http://www.myspace.com/embraceofthorns