Thursday, October 24, 2013

Malignant Asceticism - "Ascensum Serpens" (2013)

The following article is the English translation of my third review written for heavymetalwebzine.it. You can read the original review (in Italian) through this link:


EP (Blood Harvest, September 13th 2013)

Line – up (2011):       P.T. – vocals/guitars;
                                   V.G. – guitars;
                                   D.S. – bass;
                                   C.A. – drums.

Location:                   Arica (Chile).

Better song of the EP:

“The Black Dance”.

Better feature of the band:

Its ability to create an occult atmosphere.
Wow! Malignant Asceticism is the third band of 3 that I review on these pages, now I think I did a record! As the another ones (“Profane Cult” of Praise the Flame and “MMXII” of Istengoat), the “Ascensum Serpens” is a production of Blood Harvest too, also if this time it isn’t a reissue (finally!).

As the Istengoat, also the Malignant Asceticism plays black metal but in a way very different. In fact, this time music is a pure and freezing black metal, neither there are melodies and guitar solos here, also if you can listen the lead guitar here and there to emphasize the whole assault, especially during the doom breakdowns. These ones have a fundamental role, above all into “Black Dance”, so to inject to the music a stronger occult aura that embraces you in all the ten minutes circa of the platter.

“The Black Dance” is my favourite track because it is more structured and various than “Seventh Breath”, arriving to include even some groovy tupa – tupa passages, more or less like in my compatriots Black Faith (their first and now only album “Jubilate Diabolo”, released few months ago, is a real masterpiece!). Instead, “Seventh Breath” is a decisively direct and violent song, full of unbridled blast – beats, keeping a truly obscure atmosphere anyway, also because the song opens with a sort of two – minutes intro that is a bit played and a bit black mass (ultimately, the black/death metal bands have zero creativity as regards the intros!).

To create more atmosphere there is also the songs’ structure, especially because, at a certain point, there is a kind of demonic break that introduces systematically the doom moments during the half part of every song. These passages are very good, also thanking to a lead guitar sometimes really disturbed (listen to “The Black Dance”, that is even some amazing but simple bass “melodies”).

Regarding the vocals, these ones are based prevalently on diabolic screams that in “Seventh Breath” are so intense and furious to be helped (rarely) by some bestial growls, a thing that neither Bestial Warlust (that were very good as concern the pure mass destruction) shouldn’t able to do! Besides all this, I must notice that some lyrics are in Spanish.

In brief, this first EP of Malignant Asceticism, released after two demos, is an awesome preview for the future holocaust that will to come. But I must mention that I like also its production because it is powerful and compressed but dirty and malign at the same time. At this point, it’s a shame that the EP is so short, but if these Chilean madmen are so destructive with only two song, I can’t imagine the quality of the debut album!

Vote: 73

Flavio “Claustrofobia” Adducci

Tracklist:

1 – Seventh Breath/ 2 – The Black Dance