I’ve been digging what Germany’s Purity Through Fire has been releasing of late, especially when it comes to quality black metal. Notably releases from Greve, To Conceal The Horns, Nefarious Dusk, Noidva, The Dying Light and this one man act from Bavaria, who has been super prolific since 2015 with 2 splits, 2 EPS and demo and a full length already to his name since 2015.

Axis Mundi is album number 2 from “P.”, and it really comes across as a full developed band as there  are so many great cohesive ideas on the record. The first thing that stands out is the production, namely the guitar tone P chose. As opposed to the usual frosty, tinny grimness, the guitars have a robust, razor sharp tone, that even hints at a HM 2 boss sound here and there, especially when delivering slower, more melodic death metal based moments. Second, the song writing is top notch, covering a wide area of black and death metal influences, keeping the album’s whole run time very interesting as his ideas leave the listener curious about what the next song will do.

The over hour run time is chock full of enjoyable moments and riffs that deliver both traditional black metal paradigms, slightly off kilter moments, some key boards and a little of everything in between. All of it, enjoyable and a few tracks stood out, especially early one, such as the first real track “Aus Asche auferstanden”, very as well as “Wo kriegergleiche Kräfte walten” (with its killer, buzzing guitar moments), “Wie Ein Sturm”, with a cool melodic death metal march and moody “Die letzte Festung”. There’s plenty of traditional tremolo picked black metal as well such as “Der Himmel Bricht Entzwei”, blistering “Verbannt in Dunkelheit” and “Königsjäger”, but it’s heftier with that paint peeling, buzzing guitar tone. P uses a few typically Germanic clean croons here and there, but they don’t detract from the overall quality of the material.

Earlier this, year when I initially heard the album, I thought it might end up on my 2020 year end list, but then it fell of my list as I got side tracked with other releases. However, with me delving deeper into the release for this belated review, the first half of the album is indeed right up there, but the hour run time does a little steam on its back end. Still, a very high quality German black metal album that complements countrymates Porta Nigra‘s Schöpfungswut perfectly.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments