VENTR – Numinous Negativity (Signal Rex)

Born in Orthodox Black Metal

Ventr is a newborn band from Portugal and contrary to tradition of that country (which I think is an excellent tradition) the band DOESN’T make a pure raw black metal, rather the sound is very well produced, that is not to say Ventr is “melodic” black metal because it is NOT! This is the real deal.

True black metal is a style that is often deemed as equal or repetitive or alike other bands of the same style, but what differs one band from another is the intensity in which the music is done, and here it’s done with gusto, played with hunger for hell, souls sold to the abyss, a really sense of ghostly perfection and a skill for brutality.

Numinous Negativity is an EP though and has four tracks so let’s go into them:

Omnipresent Abominations has something in the mix that even putting somewhat the guitar in background it makes an infernal effect  along with the riffs extremely well played for this kind of music, or if you will, kind of more of the same but the bet here is on intensity, is on making what Ventr makes better than any other band, the drumming is strong and compulsory and the energy is up to the hilt, no compromise, no quarter.

Our Altar of Murderous Fanaticism already delivers in the title and the song vies for the obscure depths of the soul and if your thing is the murkiest forms of black metal you can’t go wrong with the tune as it fans out flames of hate and outbreaks of evil slaughter. The more one listens the more one gets addicted.

The title track functions as an intermezzo, pure dark ambient, ominous and sinister, the point when the forces of evil conjure themselves to attack the humanity with fire and destruction.

But the best song and an earworm and one of the best BM songs I’ve heard as of late is A Dagger to Worship, with its strange title the song pushes one to ugly spheres of void, the primary riff is repetitive but it’s so good that I’d not be bored to hear it over and over again, but eventually it changes to fast drums and spooky vocals completes the barbarity from the world beyond when death is not the limit, instead a more terrible journey that we have on earth, with torments, pain and disgrace while the riffs subtle changes and the sensation of falling into abyss into a daydream is inevitable. It’s impressive.

This EP of Ventr is a Sturm and drung of black energy, going to the innermost secrets of human psyche, causing nightmares and misery and plagues. In other words, a must-have release.

Numinous Negativity is out now on Signal Rex.

Rating: 9/10

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Roderick Totentanz

DeathEpoch – Abysmal Invocation (Putrid Cult)

The most outrageous album of the year.

DeathEpoch just have made the must unorthodox cd of the year. Just imagine a mix of Blasphemy, Havohej, Xenophobic Ejaculation and the strange works of Iperyt: there you have it: the mortal formula for Abysmal Invocation mixing war metal, EDM, dark ambient and noise into one entity.

Abysmal Invocation I is just one beat without guitars, but is like a dirty dance music, it’s really strange and cool and repetitive and crazy while Genocide I goes directly to a war/noise black metal that is disjointed in its (de)composition and Genocide II mix the two, while the “metal part” has just ONE RIFF of guitar all along and Abysmal Invocation II (one of the best or WORST of the album) goes full into an industrial dark ambient in all its 9-minute glory! What a beast!

The SODOM cover of Bombenhagel is an offence (whether you think the word offence here is a negative or positive thing): there is an electronic beginning and the metal parts doesn’t have the “anthem” part but this version is interesting to say at least.

Abysmal Invocation III is a play on synthesizers and it’s funny in its extreme putridity: if anything, it could be labeled goat music (because there is literally a sound of a goat in the background)!

There are more of the same but the button line is: although this is the strangest thing you’ll hear this year, this is not so progressive anything: this is the pure work of Dadaistic mix of styles by chance and it’s not for everybody. Infernal as fuck and fun as fuck as well.

Abysmal Invocation is out NOW on Putrid Cult.

Rating: 7.5/10

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Roderick Totentanz

Ocean Gates – Ocean Gates (Boomland)

The perfect of NWOBHM and 70’s occult rock.

If you look for doom, here you are. If you look for Metal, here you get it. If you look for occult hard rock, there’s no other place to find out. Ocean Gates presents the best debut of the year (or so it seems) with their self-entitled album, with a woman’s voice that sounds like a witch, rock n roll all around, top notch type, second to none music, non-bullshit metal, non plus ultra hard rock!

To be more specific it’s like if Jinx from Coven (first album only), joined forces with the occult heavy metal of Seremonia, put some Tygers of Pan Tang and Accept on the recipe, a dose of Jill Janus from Huntress amidst a Pentagram sound. Hard to grasp it? You bet!

Anyway the “irritating” voice of Nuria (ex-Deadmask) is pivotal to the success of this very organic sound of Ocean Gates, psychedelic and mesmerizing at the same way, a voice too strong to be ignored.

Opener called Equinox Warriors starts off with an unsuspecting acoustic guitar that is very melancholic just to give place to a very hard heavy sound with a strong bass sound, but don’t be fooled, as cool as this song is it doesn’t get the full potential of the band.

While the long track called Snakepit presents a very doom-laden sound which will get the fans of the style by the balls, the cover of the obscure NWOBHM band Tresspass called Stormchild gets a life of itself into the pits of pure rock n roll. A top tier layer of solos completes the binge from the old, obscure, supernatural real rock, you name it.

But there are two very special tracks that surpasses the unimaginable creativity of this group: Beyond the Veil starts with a very melancholic soft rock where the star is, of course, Nuria, and she puts all her potential there and if its not suffice to impress you, my rocker friend, I don’t know what else is. Second part, the band comes in full scale hard rock, heavy metal apparatus and the organic approach is what it kills everything in sight. Can rock n roll get any better than that????

The closer The Curse may not impress with the simple guitar in its first seconds, then the second riff which gets one instantly to Accept’s Princes of the Dawn riff, might! Of course, there’s more than meets the eye here (or the ear), and the title of the song deliver what it promises and pay dividends. What a cool upbeat and strange track at the same time. It’s like a siren luring one to burn in hell for all eternity.

Honestly there’s a plenty of rock and roll bands that blend these styles in a cool way out there, but none’s like Ocean Gates. Show your appreciation or be persecuted by the demons of rock n roll.

Ocean Gates is out now on Boomland and can be heard on Bandcamp by clicking on this link and the black and transparent vinyl are available as well at the same link.

Rating: 9,5/10

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Roderick Totentanz

SARCOPTES – Plague Hymns (Transcending Obscurity Records)

A new level for Blackened Thrash metal.

For a lot of people (including me) Blackened thrash metal is a form of Black Metal rather than being just “satanic thrash”. That being said the point is that normally, bands that play this type of music are very rough and raw. But the case here is a little bit different as Sarcoptes new EP deal with the same thing but with a much better production than their peers and that speaks volumes about the position of the band inside the style at the moment. I don’t care if it sounds off the wall, but if that was even a style, they’d been playing melodic blackened thrash metal. The disc has only 2 songs so let’s get into them:

The Vertigo Soul is more direct and assertive in their approach of the genre, fast guitars, excellent musicianship and composition, really (AHEM) hardcore in tempo, and of curse one has that kind of satanic feeling that the fans of the style are after when they chose to hear this type of music, it’s all there, nothing fancy, but with best quality.

La Moria Grandissima is a 10-minute deal, and works rather differently: while not asymmetric from the original purpose, because the same is there, the repetitiveness of black metal are more latent here and of course, being a long song, it OUGHT to have different parts even if the phrases are long, and the difference here is the guitar solos which are not simple atonal bullshit, they are very well played and melodic  and there is a subtle, but well placed keyboard working on background that is unheard of.

Plague Hymns announces what is in store for Sarcoptes and judging for the music we have here it’s something infernal and with quality at the same time. I just can’t wait for the new album to appear on the horizon.

Plague Hymns is out now on Transcending Obscurity Records.

Rating: 8.0/10

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Roderick Totentanz