Black Witchery - Upheaval Of Satanic Might
Osmose Productions - OPCD 163 - 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
Directly below this article on the reviews index page, you should be able to see my review of Canadian black metal terrorists Revenge's second album, where I state that, with that release, I have found the limit of my tolerance to extremity in metal. I feel the need to clarify that statement before I begin with this review - extremity itself hasn't begun to put me off a a release, just the fact that extremity seems to be overtaking songcraft in importance for some acts. Enter American group Black Witchery, stage left (or should that be left hand path?).
If nothing else, you've gotta admire the dedication these guys have to their art. They actually built their own studio and produced this record themselves to get exactly the kind of malevolent hell-noise that they were after. Although, at times, one wonders why they didn't just relocate the band to the bottom of a well and leave a tape recorder running in the bucket at the top of the well while they ran through their tracks, such is the buzzing, separation-free racket that makes up the length of this record. Through the noise, if you're exceptionally careful, you can occasionally make out riffage inspired by the ultra-minimal, truer-than-thou likes of Blasphemy, Von and Beherit. Every now and again, a super-brief drum fill breaks the incessant blastbeating, revealing a tantalising glimpse of what the guitars may sound like under all that hissing cymbal noise.
Eventually, you do sort of become accustomed to the racket, and that's when you start to notice that some of the riffs are actually really quite good, in an uber-primitive kind of way. There's no faulting the vocal performance either - dehumanising, vocal-tract vomiting screams abound, with occasional demonic growls causing sub woofers to rumble ominous piercing through the noise. However, the unvarying tempos, repetetive riffage and near-unlistenable production values render this album less shockingly extreme than yawn-inducingly monotonous. Seems like Satan might not have all the best tunes after all.
3/10
Official Osmose Productions Website
Osmose Productions - OPCD 163 - 2005
By Philip Whitehouse
Directly below this article on the reviews index page, you should be able to see my review of Canadian black metal terrorists Revenge's second album, where I state that, with that release, I have found the limit of my tolerance to extremity in metal. I feel the need to clarify that statement before I begin with this review - extremity itself hasn't begun to put me off a a release, just the fact that extremity seems to be overtaking songcraft in importance for some acts. Enter American group Black Witchery, stage left (or should that be left hand path?).
If nothing else, you've gotta admire the dedication these guys have to their art. They actually built their own studio and produced this record themselves to get exactly the kind of malevolent hell-noise that they were after. Although, at times, one wonders why they didn't just relocate the band to the bottom of a well and leave a tape recorder running in the bucket at the top of the well while they ran through their tracks, such is the buzzing, separation-free racket that makes up the length of this record. Through the noise, if you're exceptionally careful, you can occasionally make out riffage inspired by the ultra-minimal, truer-than-thou likes of Blasphemy, Von and Beherit. Every now and again, a super-brief drum fill breaks the incessant blastbeating, revealing a tantalising glimpse of what the guitars may sound like under all that hissing cymbal noise.
Eventually, you do sort of become accustomed to the racket, and that's when you start to notice that some of the riffs are actually really quite good, in an uber-primitive kind of way. There's no faulting the vocal performance either - dehumanising, vocal-tract vomiting screams abound, with occasional demonic growls causing sub woofers to rumble ominous piercing through the noise. However, the unvarying tempos, repetetive riffage and near-unlistenable production values render this album less shockingly extreme than yawn-inducingly monotonous. Seems like Satan might not have all the best tunes after all.
3/10
Official Osmose Productions Website
