In research for this album, I learnt that henosis is the Ancient Greek for unity and oneness, and is the philosophical concept that describes the union with what is fundamental in reality: the One, the Source and the Monad (a single complete unit). What I heard when I listened to this, the third album from The Beast of the Apocalypse, was filthy, muddy Black Metal being screamed from the swamplands. The clue is in the band’s name and the bleak and remote area of Friesland in northern Holland where they come from.
The opening track and intro “One” suggests initially that we are being taken away to a faraway mystic land but this is largely a passionless onslaught in an environment of eternal despair. Black Metal sadness sits in the midst of unclear grey shades. I wasn’t sure of the purpose of it, but my conclusion of “Vision of the Twelve Priests Before the Altar” and what follows was that it sounds like someone’s having a particularly bad day. As for ambiance, I smelt Anaal Nathrakh, The Axis of Perdition, Beherit, Burzum, but most of all Blut aus Nord without richness of colour. Admittedly “I Am Not Worthy to Utter Thy Name” is harder and faster than Blut aus Nord. Drum-led, clanging industrial hardship is expressed through the medium of a deadpan beat with screams. The track “Henosis” which follows shares the same pace and hard-edgedness. It’s almost a song with more intense screams. Relentless and grey is the only way to describe it. “An Enlightened Acon” is another dark, crashing industrial-sounding romp, encompassing the all-embracing sounds of terror and ghastly suffering. I think we’ve got the idea by this stage that the environment we’re in is monotone and one of heavy darkness. Musically, the best comes last in the form of “Yaldaboath”. It’s slower, has bigger chords and more impact than what’s gone before it. The beat is crushing and deliberate. The cries of anguish match the lengthening chords which even develop into a riff at one point. We hear hissing sounds – the last breath, maybe? There’s an hitherto unheard of mellow passage which sounds like it’s coming from a swamp before we return to the more familiar territory of crashing darkness. The mechanical sound is there as usual but “Yaldaboath” has more continuity and interest than its predecessors.
Apart from the last track, I can’t say I really engaged with this album of crash, bang and walloping industrial Black Metal. I can handle all the anguished despair but its purpose in life just seems to be grey. I can’t see the point of it. Others may degree and may find the representation of henosis that I clearly have missed.
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Andrew Doherty
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