Friday, May 10, 2013

Kingdom - "Morbid Priest of Supreme Blasphemy" (2013)

Full – length album (Hellthrasher Productions, March 25th 2013)

Line – up:     Lwn – vocals/guitars;
                     Sbch – vocals (guest);
                     Left – bass;
                     Sliwa  – drums;
                     Warzyk – intro in “Slaves of Ruins”.

Location:      Płock (Poland).

Better song of the album:

“Syn Ognia”.

Better feature of the platter:

Its inventiveness combined with a great bestiality.

Cover artwork: Batlomiej Kurzok

After the Hell United and the ambitious Masachist, the extreme Poland returns, and in a fantastic way, on these pages. In fact, I say already that the second album of the Kingdom (their first one, “Unholy Graveyard” was released 5 years ago) is a heavy blow on the gums full of inventiveness and intensity, all the more so because it is long only 29 minutes per 10 songs (two of them are even in Polish). Besides this, fun fact, “Morbid Priest of Supreme Blasphemy” has released exactly the day after my 24th birthday, that’s why it’s so fuckin’ cool hehe (fuck, I am sometimes very egocentric…)!

The band possess’ some remarkable points of interest, and first of them is the vocal work, that is really strange for an old – school metal act like Kingdom. The vocals are characterized principally by very wicked whispers, making the entire assault darker than the usual. In this way, the band is similar to the Goatoimpurity, Chilean bishops of the bestial black/death metal a là Blasphemy. In addiction, the Kingdom vomits more traditional screams and growls, also doubled, not forgetting some ultra – guttural vocals that gives to the music a more perverse atmosphere. So, the vocal work is very fanciful and rich of different solutions.

The second point of interest comes from the great variety of situations faced by the Kingdom, considering their ability to gives a strong personality to every song. For example, the classic death metal of the band is, at times, contaminated with black metal solutions (“Beast of the Sea” and “Syn Ognia”, where the riffs are more freezing), thrash passages (“Summoned from Dead”) and even crust moments (“Supreme Blasphemy”). In these two last cases the music has always a good dose of breackneck groovy, and so the ass starts to dance without will. In return, the band crush very willingly, and sometimes with a intensity to spit the ultra – blasting death/grind of “Tombs of Dead” (one minute of pure madness!), that is the perfect opposite for “Morbid Priest”, the doomish track of the album, considering also its long and obsessive conclusion where every vocal intervention has been completely banned.

On top of that, also the soloist guitar, usually through little but effective doses, help the music to be more various. In fact, it range from the minimalist and apocalyptic notes of “Morbid Priest” to the schizophrenic solos of “Beast of the Sea” and “Syn Ognia”, but I need absolutely to quote the two surprising and Arab solos of “Nameless King”, another slow song but more incisive than “Morbid Priest”.

Effectively, this last episode is the only unconciving track of the platter, having a poor conclusion complete with a soloist guitar that has been used in a bad way plus the vocals that aren’t present for even 2 minutes, a less strategic choice. It’s shame because the conclusion is very well introduced by an atmospheric sequence dominated by the tribal drums tom – toms. Luckily, the album ends with “Tombs of Dead”, that combines the bestial fury with a more structured and reasoned approach.

I like very much the album production, that is clean and raw at the same time with the bass in a good evidence and the real and “ignorant” sound of the drums.

To summarize “Morbid Priest of Supreme Blasphemy”, it is really recommended for all those who wants an old – school and dark death metal assault with a bunch of inventiveness and different influences plus an excellent balance between the fast and slow parts. So, the Kingdom keep very high the flag of the Polish extreme metal, that is decisively rich of ugly faces and skills to crush the ass proposing often a music full of qualities. Besides this, the band has also coverized, according to its own style, “Supposed to Rot” of the incorruptible Nihilist.

Rating: 87

Flavio “Claustrofobia” Adducci

Tracklist:

1 – Slaves of Ruins/ 2 – Krwawiaca Rana/ 3 – Beast of the Sea/ 4 – Morbid Priest/ 5 – Supreme Blasphemy/ 6 – Supposed to Rot (Nihilist cover)/ 7 – Summoned from Dead/ 8 – Nameless King/ 9 – Tombs of Dead/ 10 – Syn Ognia

Official site:

http://www.kingdom.glt.pl/