Artist: Impiety
Title: Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny
Type: Album
Label: Agonia Records

Impiety intrigue me. They are from Singapore, which is the last place you’d expect to find extreme, blasphemous Black Metal and unmitigated violence. I have two of their previous works, “Dominator” and “Terroreign (Apocalyptic Armageddon Command)” and they are so impressively extreme that they would make walls shudder and crack, if music was able to make that possible. Bedok, the suburb of Singapore where Impiety are based, has a grim bus station but it’s hard to imagine how that could generate what is promised on the latest album, “Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny”, namely: “scorching atomic doom, totalitarian death, depravation and desolation worship”, and a “punishing and abusive satanic maelstrom art delivered in full bestial force”.

Although “Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny” has seven tracks, numbered simply I to VII, there’s no messing about with nonsense breaks which destroy the ghastly flow. I like this. It will come as no surprise to learn that the album starts in heavy, warmongering fashion. It’s also somewhat trite. The vocalist growls a sermon of hatred at us. It becomes a steady rather than violent rant. On the plus side, guitars strike out anarchically. The drums sound like they’re committing assault and of course battery, but in the criminal sense. My interest level was raised as the sermon is delivered through vocal distortion. This heralds a thoroughly dark and bleak passage. Surprisingly, the guitars supplement the soporific drum beat with a mid-paced funereal passage. Aural excesses and extremes are missing. The deliberate delivery recalls the grimness of Mayhem. So far the album has a more conventional framework than the usual blast of uncontrollable violence. The atmosphere steps up to a higher threat level with a satanic choir which matches the blastbeating. The air reeks of horrible death. Correspondingly the music turns in the direction of Doom, and stretches it out lengthily. A guitar riff and drum blast combine but it’s a mere temporary respite from the Doom, which I found to be more wearing than overpowering. The guitar goes off on its own and adds power. This is far from easy listening, not that listening to Impiety ever was easy or meant to be. Finally it breaks into speed as well as power, and a sense of overriding nastiness hits us through the dark and violent output. It all slows down again. Clearly the intention is to bludgeon us with ponderous weight. The intensity increases gradually before the album comes to a close and fades into oblivion ….

Maybe my expectations were too high or they were just for something different. “Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny” contains a surprising turn of events from Impiety, who I’d never associated with subtlety. I’m not sure it entirely came off but I suppose there has to be a limit to interesting concepts in musical extremity. Although I didn’t find “Worshippers of the Seventh Tyranny” entirely as satisfying or cohesive as its predecessors and would have appreciated more of the customary unmitigated bloodshed, it’s still an album which deserves attention.

http://www.myspace.com/impietyofficial
http://www.agoniarecords.com