Thrall - Vermin to the Earth (2011)

Last year's Thrall debut Away from the Haunts of Men was quite a welcome and well-rounded machination of sorrow and darkness that took me by surprise for both its nihilistic disposition and authenticity. Well, the line-up has expanded by one for the follow-up, but the style of the Australian outfit hasn't changed all that much, which is both the strength and weakness to this sophomore. I mean, Vermin to the Earth even looks remarkably similar to its predecessor, so there is no shock that the band are treading familiar territory, striving only for an aesthetic consistency. And yet, despite its steady, rueful presence and a handful of riffs that stand out across its pitch black landscape, this is not so much a stride forward as one to the side.

Vermin to the Earth returns to the formula of faster, blasted passages and slower, rocking rhythms redolent of influences like Darkthrone, Burzum and Bathory, but this is all wrought in a clean, shadowy package that feels constantly like a sun setting across a barren desert. About half the tracks feel functional but average, with firm textures of desolation but no real standout riffs; whereas the other half have something more to offer. "Oblivion" is a good example of one of the album's more potent pieces, with slowly churning black/rock rhythms slathered in echoing rasps, but a few jarring twists to the guitar that keep the listener on the edge of his/her seat. A few other choice tracks include the spacey, sobering "Vita Vacuus Voluntas", the shining and versatile "Plague of Man" and the haunting slog that is "Ecstasy not of the Flesh". In fact, the latter half of the album seems to focus more on slower music adorned in crisp, ringing guitars, but measured blast beats are often thrown in to prevent a gray monotony from setting in.

I understand that uniformity is likely a quality held high for this project, and this explains the flush similarity to the debut album, but I would have liked to hear Tom Void and company try some more intense twists to this expanse of concentrated emptiness. One need not stick wholly to the orthodox instrumentation with this sort of record: added keys, percussion or local folk instruments would do much to dress up some of the bleaker vistas. Vermin to the Earth is a solid, fulfilling effort to say the least, with an excellent polish to the production that never feels overly processed. Thrall really lets its audience feel each kick, each note, and each rasp of torment contributing to this swaggering course of oblivion. But I'm not sure the same trick is going to work thrice, so I hope next time out for an added sheen of variation to the Australians' firm fundamentals.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

http://www.thrallofvoid.com/

Thrall - Away from the Haunts of Men (2010)

There is something structurally satisfying about the debut from Australia's one man Thrall. The packaging is impressive and minimal. A gleaming, silver skull ridden with serpents gracing the face of the digipak. Thick-lined, mesmeric imagery is interspersed with the lyrics in the booklet, and it's just so black. So very, very black, that before even hearing a note of Tom Void's material, you are already held in fascination of what might await you in these corridors of gloom. Away from the Haunts of Men is ambitious for a first effort, with over an hour of music, but what could have very easily transformed into a dull slog through familiar territory somehow manages to remain potent through its wide diorama of tides and tempos, all of which revel in nihilistic glory.

Void is competent in both matters of transfixed, turgid aggression and stark minimalism, and this range is captured within the first two tracks of the album. "Spit in the Eye", at over 9 minutes, offers a mix of both standard, blasting force and a far more intimate second half that begins with a memorable mid-paced segment and then peters out into an extremely sparse but effective closure. "Frozen Tears and Blood" is not quite so epic in scope, but the faster riffing is superior than the opening track, its pulsing, primal core smeared in savage, ascending melodies like the rise of a murder weapon before the fatal blow. Tracks like "Enormous Night" and the weighty "Black Hearts Burn!" explode with an exciting, rock out pace, and Void even caters towards his specters of dark ambiance with the lovely "To Velvet Blackness", or the droning minimal black/doom of "Ranks Webs". Those expecting the hacking edge of tradition will also be serviced, as "Torrent of Death" and "Heliophobia" both parade through the halls of blasted antiquity, drawing comparisons to early works of Bathory, Burzum and Graveland.

Being 60+ minutes in length, there are bound to be a few less inspired moments, and these do happen in the longer pieces. As hinted, "Spit in the Eye" opens with a fairly bland riff, and "Robe of Flesh" could use some trimming down from its near 12 minutes of existence, but I was impressed by how effective most of this record is, and it's surely an engaging way to 'kill' an hour of your life on this festering ball of mud. The potential is limitless. Thrall is artistic without ever becoming pretentious. Poetic without becoming cryptic. Bleak without the nausea. This debut is depressing without necessarily falling under the 'depressive black metal' sub-genre, but more borne of some empty celebration to the inevitable decay of all, the dissolution of creation into the nexus of nothing from which it once burst forth, a timely entropy that becomes thriving and beautiful despite itself.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (humanity you disgust me)

http://www.myspace.com/thrallofvoid