Blood Magick Necromance. Clean and polished. The sound is massive and full and the clarity is excellent, all of which bears witness to one hell of a death metal album. But this is black metal. Belphegor has flowed back and forth from death to black to black death to blackened death to whatever you want to call the melding of the two camps, but they have always maintained sympathies toward black metal. Just in terms of sound quality, much like its predecessor, it is too much death and not enough seething atmospherics. Musically it is there but it is not presented raw and dirty enough.

Once you get past the production values and listen to the music, you will find Belphegor is in fact leaning back toward black, with intensity through atmospherics as well as furious riffing. A massive dose of black as pitch joins the balancing act that is Dark Funeral meets Morbid Angel so be prepared to be stomped and soothed with melodic flair and bombastic might. “Discipline Through Punishment,” one of the killer tracks here, nicely defines the rewards of listening. Layers of brutal riffing and punishing drumming can be pared away to reveal a level of technicality that is not thrown in your face.

Harder, faster, heavier, more powerful, Belphegor pumped up to new heights of menace, with cool riffs that hook you in and great atmospherics that swallow you and relentless pummeling that hits you while you are down. This is like getting hit by a 102 car freight train, relentless. The breathing spaces are not long enough for you to get out of the way of the next car. It is at once less monotonous and more driven to surprise sucker punches that strike out from the repetition. Have no fear, a song title like “Impalement Without Mercy” would still have a place here on this album and yes they are still shredding for Satan, and I think the fallen one was listening and bestowed new gifts, beautiful melodies abound, time to see if the poison is sweet enough to lure in new servants. He hears your yearnings.

Shrieks are not as piercing and I would like to hear more clean deep chanting, like in the title track, but overall another masterful vocal performance. Helmuth remains a personal favorite. The guitar playing is top notch, as is the bass playing, of which we get full enjoyment thanks to the production quality. There are obvious rewards to clean and polished. There are many memorable slow parts with added vile overtones. Peter Tägtgren is the master, ignore my whines.

“Blood Magick Necromance” is my vote for best song, even though magic has no k. The title track is clearly the icing on the cake and shows many months of hard work coming to fruition. Easily one of Belphegor’s best ever compositions. It’s all in there, everything that makes Belphegor great. This song is oozing with inspiration, and some of that inspiration percolated through the rest of the album. Other noteworthy tracks include “Discipline Through Punishment” and “In Blood – Devour This Sanctity.” Epic and majestic. Embrace idolatry, worship at the altar of Helmuth and get the blessing of Satan. “Hail, devourer of blood ‒ blessed with fire and knowledge.” Has the luciferian infestation taken hold yet? It is still treatable. Listen to Stryper for one hour twice daily making sure to do so while wearing your spandex bee suit and if that doesn’t work go see a priest, just don’t go alone, bring a witness. If you do not wish to be saved at this time follow the swarm of rats to the altar of Helmuth, insert cd and press continuous play.

“Das gluehende Kruzifix…
Crawl to me
Lass mich fliegen
Kneel before me
Lass mich dich lieben”

Prepare to be punished. The death / black metal titans reign supreme.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments