I can’t remember listening to anything on the Debemur Morti label which I’ve not liked. Add to that an album of Black Metal from France and the prospect of Rêx Mündi’s “IHVH” was irresistible.
Sure enough, the French sense of the macabre and grotesque is here. The themes of the album have occultist and spiritual leanings. Maybe this is the trigger for the curious hybrid we get on “Pious Angels (Sefer Seraphim)”of what sounds like a Muslim call, a church choir and opera. This curious combination is sandwiched between a trail of profound Black Metal. “J’imagine (Be-reshit)” starts the work, building up like a volcanic eruption before developing into focussed, depressive Black Metal. The deadened style of the Black Metal brought the old masters Mayhem to mind. Meanwhile we battle around in underworld swamps, as if we are on the inside of the volcano. The impact is in the undercurrent rather than the raw violence, enhanced in the case of “Naphtali” by the sounds of whistling emptiness. There is imagination, to be sure, but for large parts this album comprises dark and indulgent Black Metal. It’s uncompromising and traditional in style but each track takes a different face. We hear the sound of the anvil on “Patrimoine Génétique”. It’s an appropriate motif for this mid-paced, crashing and crushing track which takes its time to spread its dark message. By contrast, “Bloodline Imagery (Achieving Synthesis with Hokhmah)” is more creepy and sinister, along the lines of Malsain or Gehenna in its malevolence. The mood is of agonising grimness. The album ends with another long and bludgeoning track. Its structure is vaguely reminiscent of Immortal. By virtue of its length, it’s like uninterrupted hypnosis. It’s raw and persistently intense.
“IHVH” is a work of dirty old-school Black Metal with twists and imagination. There is fire in it but some sections of it left me numb. My conclusion is, after listening to it a few times, that it’s interesting without being life-changing.
http://www.debemur-morti.com
Andrew Doherty
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