-

Nathr / Ordo Cultum Serpentis – “Shadows Crawl” (Signal Rex, 2022)

 


Human emotions can be “extracted” by multiple human processes… and not so human, I believe. Music, and Art in general, are very much a doorway to those emotions. Let them out, explore them, and rejoice. It can be dangerous to expose one’s fragilities, as well as exposing everything else. Art is the best platform, the best vehicle to make people… feel. Nathr and Ordo Cultum Serpentis joined forces to do such thing: extract emotions, lead people to distant mind places. Funeral Doom is always a hard place to be, in my opinion. It is a genre, or sub-genre, or whatever, that requires – again in my opinion – a specific mindset, a particular view of the artistic process / creation. It is not the most complex and intellectual thing in the World – people say it is Prog… Prog… - but it requires some hard work from the listener. Slow, intense, and distinct. There is not an immediate absorption of the Music; it takes a while for the receiver to grasp, filtrate, and analyze the “object”. These 2 entities in specific, given their background, add more layers to their music. Having Black Metal and Death Metal in their Past – recent Present – helped shape this sound, this specific sound. It still wanders, slowly, within the realm of the dead, the forgotten, but with a rage, with feelings of anger, that it is hard to not be drawn into it, especially with a different mindset. Nathr’s side is intense, formal, slow, and eerie. A dark and haunting prelude to the End. Organs take the lead, allowing a heavy whisper to walk alongside the spirits of Old. As stated before, the genre – or sub-genre – is not on the list of my go-to for fun, but again, given the musicians’ background – Funeral Harvest – I had to. I can find some parallelisms between Funeral Harvest and Nathr; maybe not musically speaking, but how the musical structure is built. Sounds odd, I know. Black Metal, Funeral Doom Metal… what do they have in common?! The emotion, the honesty, the blood, sweet and Satan, muahahah!


Ordo Cultum Serpentis opens the gates and unleashes a massive wave of sound, and power, onto the listener; wave after wave, we are thrown around with rage and strength. Hit from all sides, and emotionally injured. It is not the same we felt before. Nathr is much softer and cleaner, in a way; OCS is much dirtier and visceral. This is Death Doom at its best. It’s… the idea of comparing A to B, and C to D, only helps to center the listener, to put him on the right track. And what do I extract from OCS? There are not many Death Metal bands I enjoy. It is a genre I have no connection with; never tried, never will. But there are 1 or 2 bands that I feel are special: Necros Christos and Teitanblood. OCS have very little to do with Teitanblood, but I can vision them in line with Necros Christos. OCS’s sound is slow, yet dense and thick; deep and harsh, nonetheless it carries a melody that oozes from the guitar lines, from the drums, from the voice. The voice… from beneath the ground we rise! It takes me back to that Death Metal sound that, unlike the ultra-fast, takes its time to grind through your mind. It is a very different outlet from what Nathr offered us, and they seem like 2 pieces that simply do not fit, and I can see that. However, OCS’s side got me. Period. I truly need to explore OCS’s past releases a bit better. Maybe I well end up enjoying Death Metal after all. No, I don’t believe it.





Comentários

Enviar um comentário

Mensagens populares deste blogue

-
Imagem
Invicta Reqviem Mass Seventh Gathering Well, hello there. Getting close to this year’s finest UG Black Metal gathering, are we? Oh yes, we are! I was quite curious about who would the lads in Signal Rex select for their 7 th Black Mass, and what a nice bill it say, I say. 15 bands will join forces in one of Portugal’s most beautiful, and Black Metal, cities. Porto, Cidade Invicta, will once again receive the label’s annual Black Metal gathering, and let us go through the bands that will be performing. While there is still not a daily line-up, let us almost alphabetically stroll down the corridor and look at newcomers and artists that will be repeating their attendance. So here we go! Starting off with an act composed of musicians from different geographic locations, Burial Moon . Austria, Estonia, and Switzerland, perhaps? If I may be honest, their location is what less interesses me. Musically speaking this is straightforward Signal Rex Black Metal. The hypnotic side of t
Ler mais
-
Imagem
  Marthe “Further in Evil” (Southern Lord, 2023) I was completely unaware of the existence of this project, and only today stumbled upon it while scrolling on a very famous Black Metal group on Facebook. While reading the description of a photo, I saw The Devil’s Blood and Mediterranean Heavy Metal influences mentioned, as well as Antifascism and Italy. Scrolled down a bit more and read Bathory. Went straight to YouTube and added Tiamat, “Clouds” era (vocals at times), to it. It might sound a bit strange and misplaced, but let me tell you: it bloody works. Marthe is composed of one single musician, Marziona Silvani – stage/artist name, Marzia – and she has been around for some time. From what I understood, Marthe started out while Marzia was still rocking the drums in Ancient Cult, an Italian Heavy Doom band that since then closed the doors on existence. That gave way for Marzia to move forward and blast it all out with Marthe! Marthe is a very curious entity. Sound-wise, it ha
Ler mais
-
Imagem
  Infernal Angels “Shrine of Black Fire” (Immortal Frost Productions, 2023) 2023 has been, so far – and we are almost done with the year – a splendid year for Black Metal. Strangely enough I have been focusing more on bands and albums that have a deliberate melodic approach to the sound, rather than going for the Raw Black Metal acts. Not that we do not have been infernally blessed with exquisite works of Art, but the well-produced records have been calling for me, and I have answered the call. Immortal Frost is a bit to blame for that. Surtur has released, so far, at least 2 records I believe will be considered some of the best I had the pleasure to listen to this year: Infinity’s “The Untamed Hunger” and Deadspace’s “Unveiling the Palest Truth”; an honorable mention to Azaghal’s “Alttarimme on Luista Tehty”, that shows a band still pushing hard! The label’s latest release is Infernal Angel’s “Shrine of the Black Fire”, and we’ll jump right into the fire to see what we got here!
Ler mais