So South Korea’s Fallen Angel’s productions has been around since 2010, and based on my recent package from them, they have a pretty distinct niche for international, simple, middle ground, lo fi black metal (Pest, Elffor, Dark Plague, Kvalvaag, Skoll, Krigerewolf, Catacumba) and even some home grown nihilism (Taekaury), but one of the bands more recent releases, breaks the mold a bit; the debut from Norway’s Wendigo. And of course it’s a style I really don’t ‘get’. Good ol’ black/thrash.

That said, new act Wendigo ( the side project of label mate Kvalvaag and vocalist Jon Henning), go on and do their thing with aplomb. Gritty, gravelly guitars with gritty gravelly vocals rasping about all manner of horror and cannibalistic themes (duh, Wendigo), I even get a little odor of Necrophagia’s horror based metal in here to (check out the keyboards that close out “Cannibal Ritual”). It’s nasty, it’s primal and its equal parts black sheen and thrash/punk sneer.

It’s not a game changer and its not going to make me a fan of the genre, but like say, Gravehill or Craven Idol, there’s a snarly feral energy that cant be denied. For example the mid paced “The Anthropophagist” has a steady, menacing throb and rumble that’s hard to ignore and the fierce following track “Serpent Master”, actually kicks a little ass, while “Wendigo Psychosis” is a pretty fun romping thrasher (as is 7th track “Human Flesh”).

The 80s horror movie score/vibe/keys returns for the 5 minute “Fear (Is Big Business)” and 6 minute plodder “Live Lobotomy” before the outro “Ending” complete the album with a spooky piano close out. I’ve heard worse black thrash albums, and while not really my thing, this things is pretty solid and a nice little album from Fallen Angels Productions amid some pretty mediocre stuff.

[Visit the band's website]

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