Bands: Morte Incandescente/Illum Adora
Title: Remnants of a Flaming Past
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 24th April 2017
Time: 40 min
Rating: 75/100
This split devoted to
the purest black metal as Satan commands is truly fantastic! Into it, you will find in the first side a duo of totally crazy veterans from the killer Portuguese metal scene while, in the second side, a very young trio from Germany still without a full-lenght album, and each of them have 5 songs to express their own values. All this published under the auspices of the Portuguese
War Arts Prod, a small label always ready to manifest its own absolute hate towards this world through a mission completely dedicated to the rawest black metal.
Well, the first band is
Morte Incandescente ("glowing death" in Portuguese...and also in my tongue, Italian). Leaded since 2002 by two artists very active into the
Portuguese black metal scene named
Vulturius (yet known on these pages for his one-man band
Irae) and
Nocturnus Horrendus, Morte Incandescente impressed me a lot with their 4th album
"...O Mundo Morreu" released in 2016. And they did it again with this split playing their raw and hysterical black metal strongly characterized by the totally insane vocal performances of these two demons. The variety of their numbers is amazing, especially thanks to a riffing able to be primitive à la
Hellhammer ("Por Entre o Ser"), dissonant
("Infinito Definido"), melodic
("Além") and also full of creepy arpeggios (like in
"Eu Trascendo"), depending on the situations. But there are also some punk influences, as in the drumwork of
"A Colheita". Strangely, my standout track of Morte Incandescente's side is an instrumental called
"Além", melodic but freezing and mostly very fast, also if this is an instrumental a little special because of few vocal parts (with frightful howlings à la
Black Cilice) here and there but without any words. I appreciate a lot the kind of production, also because the songs sounds so raw that it seem they're like from a rehearsal room! In brief, this is a black metal very rooted in the evil spirit of the '90s taking inspirations from various styles, in primis the French and Norwegian ones.
Totally different black metal from
Illum Adora. These 3 German monsters, formed in 2011, have offered here songs that, according to Metal-Archives, were supposed to be part of a never released third demo, also recorded with the old line-up of which the only survivor is the singer
Hurricane Hellfukker, now accompanied by the new members
Ceallach (drums) and
Thjafjaz (guitars/bass). So, their 5 songs showcase a black metal with a melodic riffing and embraced, as it's typical for the bands coming from the
German/Austrian area (like
Helrunar or
Nahtrunar), by a fatalistic aura, expressed especially by the final song
"Ophiolatreia", truly painful and, in my opinion, the best number of this band here. Instead, sometimes the atmosphere is fatalistic but, at the same time, epic and warlike as in the case of
"Wrath Inflamed". The general simplicity of the black metal played by Illum Adora (never really violent also because they plays never blast-beats but, anyway, the fast tempos are enough present), is compensated by some refined solutions, as exemplified perfectly by the long, slow and very atmospheric break of
"Swords of Olden Days" where there are even some evocative chapel choirs; or by the following song
"Misericordia Est Infirmitate", where, in its central part (slow, as usual for this band) there is a simple and suggestive guitar solo. I have to mention also the mild and desperate acoustic instrumental track titled
"Gone Forever". And finally, the Hurricane Hellfukker's vocals are focused on very classic screeching screams alternated sometimes with some whispers.
So, this split showcase two bands very different but always rooted in the '90s era with Morte Incandescente that plays a raw and insane black metal while Illum Adora offers a more melodic and atmospheric version in German style. I have to say that I found no real flaws in this split album (only the too abrupt fading end of "Sword of Olden Days" is questionable), so Morte Incandescente (
Rating: 76) confirm again to be
one of the better TRVE black metal bands of these days from the fantastic Portuguese scene while Illum Adora (
Rating: 74), that recently have released a live album in cassette titled
"First Hideous Blasphemies", are to be considered as
a good promise for the German black metal. Ergo, these 10 songs can be also called
"Remnants of a Flaming Past" but, in fact,
that past is still proudly alive thanks to bands like these two ones!
Please, make a donation to Timpani allo Spiedo 'zine through the Paypal button at your right, above the cover artwork of my upcoming book about proto-black metal. Thank you very much!
Tracklist:
1 - Por Entre o Ser
2 - A Colheita
3 - Infinito Definido
4 - Além
5 - Eu Trascendo (Morte Incandescente)
6 - Sword of Olden Days
7 - Misericordia Est Infirmitate
8 - Wrath Inflamed
9 - Gone Forever
10 - Ophiolatreia (Illum Adora)
Morte Incandescente's line-up:
Vulturius - vocals/guitars/bass
Nocturnus Horrendus - vocals/guitars/bass/drums
Illum Adora's line-up:
Hurricane Hellfukker - vocals
T. Vogt - guitars
D.M. - drums
Morte Incandescente's FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/MorteIncandescente
Illum Adora's BandCamp: https://illumadora.bandcamp.com/
Illum Adora's FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/IllumAdora
War Arts Productions: http://www.war-arts-productions.com/
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