Bands: Infernal Angels/Catechon/Ad Noctem Funeriis
Title: Italian Black Metal Assault
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 6th June 2017
Time: 39 min
Rating: 70/100
Proudly titled "Italian Black Metal Assault", this split album, released on CD in 100 copies by the young Italian (obviously!) label Adimere Records, presents even 3 bands more or less well known coming from our Peninsula. Each of them is devoted to the purest black metal through different ways and results for a various tracklist with 3 tracks per band.
Well, let's start with Infernal Angels that are surely the most respected band of this split also because they play since 2002 releasing even 4 full-lenght albums, included the newer "Ars Goetia". Coming from the region of Basilicata (South Italy), Infernal Angels, for this split, have re-recorded two songs taken even from their very first demo "Absum Lucem" (2002), in which they play a melodic black metal characterized not only by a good balancement between the slow and the faster tempos but also by the typical guttural voice of Xes, the leader and the only former member of Infernal Angels, a band that, throughout the years, has suffered a bunch of line-up changes. As last track, we find "Spawn", a cover of Boa (the short-lived side-project of the same Xes) where there is a very melancholic but blasting black metal.
Instead, the second band is called Catechon, a promising quintet from Veneto that, born in 2013, released only the demo "Il Richiamo di Orfeo" (2013) before this split. Unlike Infernal Angels, Catechon plays a merciless and nevrotic black metal with some death metal influences (in "Legacy of Cain", at least) while the very violent "Succube" (Italian for "Succubus"), completely sung in Italian, see even some S & M scenes with a woman that whips happily a man. But totally surprising is their last number, "IIT; 2: 6 - 7 because, coming from their demo, is incredibly unpredictable and creative so to range from nightmarish and slow passages also focused on tom-toms (in fact, the performances of the drummer are fantastic along with the ultra-angry singer!) to the now usual blasting assault of Catechon. And I have to say that this track is the better one of this entire split, a true black metal masterpiece! But it's strange that it is considered such as the most weak episode in other webzines...
Last but not least, here you are Ad Noctem Funeriis, 5 pissed-off veterans from Apulia responsible of two albums (and by the way, their cover artworks are amazing!). Their music? An hyper-blasting Satanic black metal with a riffing melodic and majestic perfect to praise the Supreme Lord of Darkness especially in a very intense and epic number like "Luce e Fiamme" ("Light and Flames"), surely the better one of the Ad Noctem Funeriis' side! So, theirs is an approach strongly devoted to the Swedish black metal in the veins of Setherial, Dark Funeral and bad co.. But, SURPRISE!, their last track, with which these Apulian demons ends this split album, is the Darkthrone cover "Whiskey Funeral" so to headbang with an hellish crust punkish assault that the Norwegian duo opened with the 2006 "The Cult is Alive", influencing, also with this new style, a bunch of new bands.
Ok, I said almost everything about "Italian Black Metal Assault". Ending,I have to say that Infernal Angels (
rating: 65) have never particularly impressed me since, for me, they are only a good black metal band and stop, also if they have recently changed their style in a better way. Instead, Catechon (
rating: 71) have surprised me for "IIT: 2: 6 - 7", which is enough to buy the (now sold out!) split, and I have to confess that just they sent to me it for a review after my article about the monumental "Nightscapes" of Black Faith (in fact, if you remember, the Catechon's drummer Sinister participated as a guest on the aforementioned album). Finally, Ad Noctem Funeriis (
rating: 73), whose tracks slowdowns systematically after 2 minutes and 30 seconds of fast tempos (the cover too!), plays a destructive but majestic black metal able even to move the listeners! So...the split is recommended but...did you realize that the third track of every band is a bit unusual considering their main style?
Now, if you want, make a donation to Timpani allo Spiedo 'zine through the PayPal button at your right, above the cover artwork of my upcoming book. Thank you very much!
Tracklist:
1 - Mater Tenebrarum
2 - Absum Lucem
3 - Spawn (Boa cover) (Infernal Angels)
4 - Legacy of Cain
5 - Succube
6 - IIT: 2: 6 - 7 (Catechon)
7 - Black Legion
8 - Luce e Fiamme
9 - Whiskey Funeral (Darkthrone cover) (Ad Noctem Funeriis)
Line-up Infernal Angels:
Xes - vocals
Nekroshadow - guitars
Apsychos - guitars
Hagen - bass
Venders - drums
Line-up Catechon:
Morgue - vocals
Her Majesty Valeria Valkiria - guest vocals ("Succube")
Mourner - guitars
Dusk - guitars
Jackal - bass
Sinister - drums
Line-up Ad Noctem Funeriis:
Hellhound - vocals
Tyrannos - guitars
Moloch - guitars
Carondimonio - bass
Eversor - drums
FaceBook Infernal Angels: https://www.facebook.com/infernalangelsofficial
BandCamp Infernal Angels: http://infernalangels.bandcamp.com/
FaceBook Catechon: https://www.facebook.com/catechonitalianblackmetal/
BandCamp Catechon: https://catechonitalianblackmetal.bandcamp.com/
FaceBook Ad Noctem Funeriis: https://www.facebook.com/Ad-Noctem-Funeriis-722921531058677/
Adimere Records: http://adrshop.bandcamp.com/
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