Monday, July 17, 2017

One Master : " Lycanthropic Burrowing"




These guys have supposedly being haunting the underground with their brand of black metal for 15 years , but this is the first time I have heard of them. To call them occult black metal seems a bit far fetched as they are really just straight up black metal with the kind of feral intensity that has become common place in the post- second wave world. So the kind of furious blast beats and tremolo picked guitar that feels impressive in the first half of the first song, but makes you wonder how long this will continue to wow you once you have been numbed out by it. The second song steps away from this and into a more punk infused sound, before the band returns to the mean spirited drone of "the Black Bat". The vocals on this one are less rasped and have more of a Venom like snarl to them.

There is a similar approach to the song that follows though it's enshrouded in more of a wall of white noise. In feel alone this reminds me of earlier Darkthrone, as I recall how those albums lulled me into the drone of their tremolo picked guitar.The snarl of "Erosion" reminds me a little of Dissection. The difference being the vocals are not as commanding. Nor do the vocals attempt to stand out on their own as a driving force of the song. The sonic intensity they come at you with is impressive, but it's fury begins to wane by this point in the album as they have pounded into your brain with little in the way of dynamics.

The closing song is a bit of a anti-climax as it dances around a drone very similar to the ground this album has already tread upon.There is a little more atmosphere at the beginning, which is an improvement aside from the full frontal assault it seems like these guys prefer to launch. It's well into the two minute mark when they decide to bring the fury in a flurry of blast beats. The mood to the song is slightly more tempestuous, but not enough to really make you take notice. If you like very aggressive black metal then this is for you, I am giving it a 6 as it's too one dimensional for my personal tastes.


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