Evil Nerfal - "Bellum Est Pater Omnium" (GrimmDistribution/Morbid Skull Records, 2018)

Band: Evil Nerfal
Title: Bellum Est Pater Omnium
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 9th January 2018
Time: 41 min
Rating: 52/100













You know, I'm a big fan of the South American black/death metal because it's so raw, so instinctive, so bestial and also so Satanic and blasphemic. Hence, in theory, also this "Bellum Est Pater Omnium", the second album by the Colombian duo Evil Nerfal (but they become a quartet for the live gigs, and that's why there are 4 figures in the pic below) could be good for my tastes. Yes, in theory...


In fact, this album starts badly because of "Coriolan (Overture)", which is a too long (2 minutes and a half) orchestral intro that says nothing about the style of Evil Nerfal. Finally, the real first song "Fuck Off Jesus Christ" (what a fantastic title!) starts and so you can understand that Evil Nerfal plays basically a blasting but melodic Swedish black metal in the vein of Marduk, Setherial and Dawn with slighty death metal touches, all this, for me, is ok. Gradually, you discover that Evil Nerfal offers an interesting variety through many tempo changes, some evocative clean vocals dedicated to celebrate the evil glory of Satan, some guitar solos (not so frequent in this kind of black metal) and even ballad moments with acoustic parts (like in "En Las Fauces del Demonio"). Additionally, there is a track more focused on the mid-tempos ("In Endless Torment") and an instrumental called "Satanic Madness Black Metal Unleashed", that, curiously, is the longer track of the album with its 5 minutes and 36 seconds of lenght. Closing the circle, the outro "Egmont (Finale)" is another piece of orchestral music...but, sorry, I can't understand the usefulness to open and end a black metal album with tracks of this kind!

Sure, the real problem doesn't comes from the orchestral tracks but, essentially, from the structure of the songs. In fact, their structure is too chaotic and randomic, and all this can't allow to the various songs to reach real and memorable climaxes also because of too abrupt tempo changes, potentially good solutions made ineffective for some reasons and a too melodic riffing that can't give to me sensations of pure evil (especially during the not so few strange lead guitar lines), despite the initial intentions to give to the listeners plenty of dark feelings (here below you can watch the official video made for "Agon").

Some suggestions to the band? Well, I can suggest to you to make more direct and simpler (so, more effective) your fast black metal without the stranger lead guitar lines. But all this is a shame because, generally, I like a lot both this kind of black metal and the typical South American passion and enthusiasm of these two guys towards their music, that you can perceive even by reading the posts on their official FB page, in which they explains the meaning of some songs in the album and also its title (specifically, "Bellum Est Pater Omnium" - or is it better "Bellum Pater Omnium Est"? - means in Latin "The war is the father of everything" and it was taken from the Greek philospher Heraclitus of Ephesus). Just through their FB page, I discovered that they will support the very successfull Polish black metal Batushka for a live gig scheduled on 25th May 2018 in Pasto, the city where Evil Nerfal started their diabolic path before relocating in Pereira in ANNO DIABOLI 2012. At this point, I hope that the next album by Evil Nerfal will be good for me.

Tracklist:

1 - Coriolan (Overture)
2 - Fuck Off Jesus Christ
3 - In Endless Torment
4 - Foedus Versus Deus (Against the Great Drone of History)
5 - En las fauces del demonio (Taedium Daemoni)
6 - Agon (Bellum Est Pater Omnium)
7 - Satanic Madness Black Metal Unleashed
8 - Sathanas Kingdom Rises
9 - Vestigial (Manifiesto de misantropía)
10 - Egmont (Finale)

Line-up:

Brannagh Bapheker - vocals/guitars/bass
Purzon Dominus - drums

FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/EvilNerfal
GrimmDistribution: http://satanath.com/distro
Morbid Skull Records: http://www.morbidskullrecords.com/