Known to London from their bloody appearance at 2010’s Armageddon Festival, Poles Azarath have now moved from Agonia to Witching Hour Productions to bring us the follow-up to 2009’s Praise the Beast: Enter Blasphemers' Maledictions!
Often known as merely the ‘other band’ of Behemoth’s drummer Inferno, Azarath have truly worked on their own identity and I find those comparisons to be total nonsense – there is much more to Azarath’s music (and they also don’t have a Polish X-Factor judge as their front man).
Anyhow, the new Azarath comes with some killer artwork by Mr. Bielak, even the press-sheet looks like the dog’s bollocks, man! Awesome treat for a reviewer. Anyhow, as the London Armageddon Fest performance this album is all about the balls. Big angry Polish motherfucki*g balls. If you don’t have big enough balls, don’t listen to this – listen to Russell Howard, you gimp. Azarath ticks all the boxes… and that’s not saying they’re trying to appeal. This is honest, technically (not anally so) advanced Death/Black brutality, the cruel kind of bestial fury that’ll rip your face off as easily microwaving a frankfurter. From the outset it’s clear that this is a step forward for Azarath. Dark melodies and themes dominate this album, elevating it over the usual mundane blasto-rama/war-metal. They also have a great groove to them, adding further variation. Don’t get me wrong, this is an almost constantly fast-paced album… but thankfully enough elements have been added to make it interesting from start to finish.
So concluding this way too short review (considering the blistering power of Blasphemers’ Maledictions): Azarath have topped themselves and released an excellent Black/Death(War) album full of brilliant riffing, stunning technicality and a lesson for many of how to balance melody and brutality without ending up sounding like a total pussy or boring.
http://www.azarath.tcz.pl
Miika Virtanen
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