This is the second album from Paris based Livarkahil and they have chosen a pretty tough concept to base things on, namely “religious autocracy.” Autocracy is a form of rule whereby one person possesses unlimited power. Religion is meant to belong to the people but they are not all equal by any means and it is the leaders, be it pope, imam or priest that becomes the controlling facet of ‘organised faith’ and the scriptures and prayers their means of control. Naturally this is just the tip of the iceberg but you came here for a music review not a sermon, so what do the oddly named Livarkahill sound like?
Well that’s not the easiest thing to define. The opening part of the album ‘In Nomine Patris’ literally marches in, stomping and chanting like an army going into battle. After this we have ‘When Hell Is Near’ which is a chunky, groove laden and chest beating affair. Vocals from HK (word of God) are what I would possibly expect from a deathcore or hardcore band and they kind of make the music sound like the sort of thing tough guys wearing a vest would take great delight windmilling around in a pit to. The music has a sound that can be summed up in one word namely ‘mighty.’ Drums incessantly pummel you into submission, the vocals bellow with wounded indignation, occasionally there are some backing clean roars too. Guitars and bass heavily chug along and sometimes flail off into solo territory, on the whole this simply flattens you like a bastard great steamroller.
I can imagine this appealing to quite a widespread audience. Probably more to a death metal crowd though seeing as the band are currently on tour with Hate and Vesania, it’s just the vocals that have me thinking of a slightly different direction at times. I like the cleaner vocals they work really well on numbers like ‘The End Of Everything’ but they are the exception to the rule and the main attack is the more grizzled hoary voice. There are a couple of guests popping up here too. ‘Art Of Bleeding’ features the higher yapping tones of Lyzanxia (a name that means nothing to me). One that does and adds impact to ‘Heaven Shall Fall’ is Inrvi from orthodox black metal band Aosoth and it’s interesting to note that the album is produced by HK and BST from the band, really solidifying the fact that Livarkahil have obviously properly represented the theme of the album.
There are times when I am reminded of the similar blasphemous tones of Behemoth as on the crushing instrumentation of ‘Above All Hatred’ and the album has the same sort of intensity as Poland’s finest, never letting up for a second. Livarkahil and their songs of dis-praise are pretty formidable on the whole, so if you want something to annoy the Xtian neighbours with on Sunday morning this is a pretty good album to check out.
http://www.livarkahil.com
Pete Woods
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