Artist: Helel
Title: A Sigil Burnt Deep Into Flesh
Type: EP
Label: Debemur Morti
Is it me or is ‘industrialised black metal’ becoming something of an anachronism these days? Spearheaded by Mysticum in the early-mid Nineties, the concept reached its peak with Aborym riding the experimental turn-of-the-millennium zeitgeist, whereby pounding drum machines, distorted vocals and neon corpsepaint were readily embraced by the more forward-thinking proponents of the genre. And in 2009? Well, the whole thing seems all rather dated now, the fusion of lo-fi extreme metal and mechanised brutality long since past the point of resembling a genre-splicing cutting-edge distillation of aggression. Instead, it’s just another accepted approach to the template with wannabe practitioners having to rely on more than just shock value to impress.
So how do French newcomers fare with this, their debut EP that ploughs the cold, mechanical furrow ploughed by Mysticum 15 years ago? The presence of the Debemur Morti seal of approval keeps expectations relatively high and, true to form, Helel do not disappoint. Musically very able – particularly the dexterous, swooping guitar work – and boasting a suffocating, hostile ambience, the sounds raging across this 27-minute ordeal almost match the absurd hyperbole in the accompanying press release. The industrial elements are pretty much outweighed by the black metal viciousness with only the synthetic drum sound, hyper-blasts and ill-advised gabba section at the end of ‘This is Hel(el)’ really giving weight to this aspect of the band’s sound. For all the bluster, this is modern-day nasty black metal give a few industrialised and electronic flourishes. Vocals snarl relentlessly, Emperor influenced orchestral keyboard patches swell in the background, choirs howl and dissonant riffs describe arcs of buzzsaw vitriol.
If anything, the electro elements only serve to detract from the intensity of the material – opener ‘Mass Destruction – Mass Alienation’ really could do without the limp sinewave pads and techno breakdown which crops up half way through whilst the aforementioned ‘ultra blasts’ that follow, rather than sounding supremely heavy, just sound thin and annoying. Interestingly, this disc improves as we move through it as the token industrial elements take less prominence, culminating in the rather excellent ‘Cosmos Out of Order’ that closes the release. A decent taster for what is clearly an extremely competent outfit – the melding of industrial and black metal may still be a little rough around the edges (but then again, I’ve never been hugely convinced by this path since the early days), but for a dose of modern-tinged spite, there’s plenty here in spades.
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Frank Allain
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