Here’s yet another ripping band that’s been in the trenches
since the early 90’s and is only now really reaching their full potential
without any compromise or pretense. Instantly when I sampled this ones sound I
knew in a fraction of a second that it WAS for me, there’s just something in
this sound that combines the epic, occult, and memorable without any leaning
toward melody or cinematic assistance, and catches you by throat with their
continual rhythm changes within each song while never losing a beat. The chords
are traditional buzzing black metal distortion swarms, but the distortion is
controlled to a distinct level so that you can actually feel the rhythms, which
switch between classic metal rhythms and full blown blackened chaos. Israthoum
are really skilled in being unique and intense, maintaining depth through
themselves and pulling from all their influences without giving those
influences away through obvious imitation.
The overall vibe of Black
Poison and Shared Wounds is that of grooving heavy fronted traditional
black metal buzzing razor blade
power chord rage of chaos and spiraling leads with sparse melodies that sound
like a distorted metallic violent storm at sea. The percussion is a barrage of
crashing and well-placed bass drum hits (for guys) as deliberate and potent as
a steel toe roundhouse to the testes. One of the main standouts in my mind
though, are the vocals going back and forth between shrieking or howling black
metal and cleaner shouting/calling from behind the fog of night in a storm
reminding me a lot of Drautran Throne of
the Depths.
Aside from the main logistics covered, “Devil Bacchus”
breaks up the album with it’s brutal crunching freight train “chugga chugga”
thrash assaults, making “Devil Bacchus” a serious fucking bulldozer of an
anthem that really takes you by surprise but still sounds as if it’s “in place”
on the album with the others, some of which may subtly invoke some atmospheric
and brief pagan rhythms, such as in “The Unraveling Traveler”, and “Burning the Sephiroth”.
The production is really solid, nothing lo-fi, but there’s
no lessening of the ominous buzzing chaos as a result. I’m a lover of the raw
and gruesome shrieking banshee shit just as much as the more polished stuff, so
as long as it still kicks ass, it’s a worthy release, and Black Poison…
definitely is destructive and menacing!!!!
also available from Hells Headbangers webstore currently and
probably very soon in others such as a Deathgasm, Nuclear War Now,etc.
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