We continue our tour of Scandinavia with a trip to Finland. Finnish Black metal tends to fall along the more raw and under-produced side of things so I normally do not dive into as much. This album falls closer to the side of early Mayhem in the noise it kicks up. The vocals often erupt from more of a croak. It has a very dark mood so that is playing to the first song's favor. There are creepy interludes of sound sprinkled about and they are not shy about leaning into doomy tendencies. I am not sure that is as ritualistic as they think it is, but I am fine with the vibe.
This is almost an EP if you take away all the interludes that are almost as long as the actual song. There is almost more of a Venom stomp to the blown-out beast that is "Katharsis". It is not as refined of a song as the previous song but works for the type of midnight grave robbing they are painting with the sounds being cranked out here. I am impressed that this is not a blast fest, even though it sounds like this is being played by cavemen, it still works with its primitive charm.
I often do not think of Celtic Frost as one of the originators of black metal despite their name being brought up all the time, but I can hear their influence on "Fiery Serpent". The last song is twice the length of the others at almost ten minutes, It is less doomy, and more like you might expect from Finnish Black Metal. Overall I enjoyed the mood this album created, it's raw and cvlt sounding but still is made of well-crafted songs, showing why not do both. I will give this a 9.
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