Like a moth to a flame I was instantly drawn to this one after reading the small amount of information about it. This was due to the diabolical duo who have spawned the oddly named group, namely N. Imperial of Krieg (and countless others) on vocals and J Gelso from Profanatica playing all instruments; a match made in hell itself! Cutting straight to the chase I will say this is not particularly easy listening; I could not say I like the album even and it is probably one not designed to be enjoyed. With that out the way it’s simply a case of describing the music conjured up from the twisted mentality of the minds behind it.
Well I am sure you could have easily guessed this is no passionate play for Christ the lord but more about blaspheming his very essence. First track ‘Denial Of The Holy Spirit’ makes this more than clear by name and throatily gurgles into action in a sluggish and decrepit mood. Yes this is a doom and dirge-filled treatise prone to suddenly lurch into action and drunkenly, zombiefied take a dead limbed stagger toward you. The vocals are horribly ghastly here and it hurts just listening to them, sounding like Imperial is gargling blood and razorblades after sword swallowing and fire breathing exercises have all gone horribly wrong. Drums thud incessantly and monotonously in the background and the guitars and bass unravel around them adding a slight touch of disquieting melody.
You couldn’t pigeonhole this that’s for sure, there are aspects of primitive black metal, old school death and doom thrown into the craggy chasm and spewed back up in a plume of gore. It’s no easy listen and the songs have a gnarly one-dimensional pace about them, which, like the drumming, is pretty much determined to beat you into submission. Imperial’s vocals are particularly good and sound alien and demonic at times; high in the mix there is absolutely no way of escaping them. The one downside is that I would be really intrigued to actually be able to read the lyrics behind the ten numbers here. You can make the odd parts out like the huge rasping conclusion to ‘Dead Eucharist’ and I guess that helps make the rest of the subject matter all the more interesting.
If you want to explore things in more detail, lyrics as well, it looks like the nice blood red vinyl courtesy of the label is the way to go. So if you want to spend money on audio pain and suffering; click the link below, have a listen and be prepared to be crucified.
http://www.myspace.com/unholyblackproductions
http://theroyalarchblaspheme.hellsheadbangers.com
