one. Graceful Infection By Evil
two. Cult of the Crucified
three. Blessing of Insanity
four. Protonic Zone of Hell
five. The Funeral of a Beast
six. Maxima Satan
seven. Devil in Me
eight. Mechanical Storm
nine. Prayer of Purifying
ten. Esthetical Murder
eleven. A Little Saint Bitch
twelve. Let the Heavens Burn
thirteen. Copulation With Mechanism
Thirteen tracks….nearly an hour of well played and produced black art hailing the Christian created Satan.
I remember back in high school a day when me and a friend of mine scrawled pentagrams and King Diamond and Slayer logos on the school steps with shards of gravel. Why? dunno. For shock…an anti-establishment declaration perhaps. I was 15 years old…what can I say? I fucking loved (still love) that music though… I never really got the whole satanic metal thing, although I’ve been listening to bands that produce this stuff for twenty years now. The whole premise of “satan” is a product itself of Christianity…I just always find it amusing that “evil” bands praising and “worshipping” satan are celebrating a product of the very religion they are cursing. Its all fairy tales to me mostly…or is it? fuck if I know. crack another beer…
Anyway, these guys have a fucking good album here to check out. Nearly an hour of solid black metal with a healthy dose of old thrash riffs that pop up throughout. “Misanthropic black art that transgresses morality and aims to destroy this rotten christian world” is how they describe it. Sounds like a plan to me tee hee.
Track one is a mid-tempo dirge…track two, ‘Cult of the Crucified’ sprawls out more like a method out spider with blast beats that cascade into thrash riffing interspersing with SCARY keys…tempos everywhere.
By the time we get to track five “The Funeral of a Beast’ note-oriented riffing takes the stage over a mid-tempo bed of pure fucking evil, man. goosebumps.
Track six “Maxima Satan” exhibits some Celtic Frost (old…before they became a glam band with small Aerosmith t-shirts with no sleeves) riffing. nice.
The album continues on with a lovely song called ‘mechanical storm’ which I can only describe as dirgy and catchy…whadya want from me?
Number nine on the lineup is a techno influenced bathroom break.
Track ten blasts forth with blast beats into mid-tempo black metal that is epic and fills your head with a vision of a cold forest, or my backyard, same thing.
“A Little Saint Bitch” is more epic evil art with more emphasis on a fast tempo with machine-gun runs on the snare.
And then comes “Let the Heavens Burn”… a motherfucking thrashing track with thrash riffing bitch. yep. the best song on the album is this ditty. If the entire album was in the vein of this display it would have been fine with me…this song is followed by another satanic disco dance number much like song #9. It has a cool title though…”Copulation with mechanism”.
I haven’t mentioned the vocals have I. Average black shrieks…but they get the job done…not a weak link here. I would have liked some guitar solos…although they didn’t detract in anyway from this hour long journey through the bowels of “hell”.
This band hails from the Ukraine. What this mean I don’t know. It also notes in the bio that this albums was recorded in a studio that also was witness to VADER. That garners a thumbs up from me. The production on this disc is really good…every instrument is well placed and spaced…the riffs bite, the bass pulls down, the drums pummel through it all… the vocals are mixed nicely and ride atop festivities just fine.
I can’t comment on the packaging, as I got a bare bones promo…but judging from the quality stuff Deathgasm has put out in the past I’m sure the consumer will be rewarded with a nice display of underground art with a nice layout. etc.
Read all of Shane’s Music Reviews in our Music section.
