I have listened to a lot of Death and Black metal over the years, I came up in thrash metal dabbling with pure metal and multiple subgenres, but something drove or attracted me to the more extreme metal hence stumbling upon this band was just another adventure to be taken. Hailing from Germany, and members from France the band hand done 3 splits with other bands, and an EP before releasing this full length recording in 2017, by Dunkelheit Production and sadly it would mark the last time they would issue a complete release, before splitting up in 2022. Their history would have multiple line-up changes though founding member stayed the consist piece of artists involved with Ex Ipsis-Mors. The influence that drove them was Slayer’s thrash style and provided their lyrical theme of religion and Death and if curious of the previous in black realm that conjured the will create this album that’s from the Swedish black bands Necrophobic and Grotesque. I should note that the band formed from the remains of Captis Damnare which existed from 1999 to early 2010.
It begins with a ritual like intro lasting for about a minute on the album before sweeping with bestial growls and raw throttle of musical onslaught with “Sacrilegious Rite” come screaming from one’s speakers with guest vocalist Infernal Execrator’s Lord Ashir. The third track “Coronatus Rex Mortis (Morbid King of Devastation)” might seem familiar to those that have closely followed the band, it is from their Black Curses of Death EP (2015). The fourth track, “Deathstalker” also from that same EP echoes a wretched diabolical song, blasts from the bowels of hell, complete with howling growls; a fair warning the seventh song “Remains of the Deceased” features guest vocals by Adaestuo’s Hekte Zaren and is from that EP too. The album features many songs available on other albums, although, it is often harder to find those splits with those artists, because they are very rare, for example, the fifth song “Nocturnal Blood Consecration” a wickedly good track, was originally on Sexual Blood Rites, complete with graphic artwork with the band Ungod in 2011; which was only previously 7” vinyl copies with highly limited quantities made on the AOP records label in Germany. I mention this because of others criticizing there’s not enough new tracks available on the disc. A great song that contains an incredible fast pace, “Strigoicia” with another guest vocalist Sonia Sepulcral of Bestial Holocaust is about vampirism and feeding the living consuming their exist, it adds to the album giving to the illusion to existing in the darkness however the songs also hint to mass panic so easily planted in weak minds. Actually, all the songs, unleash viciousness brewing contempt for those unable to handle to infernal intensity.
Track List:
Missa Nigra
Sacrilegious Rite
Coronatus Rex Mortis (Morbid King of Devastation)
Deathstalker
Nocturnal Blood Consecration
In Absence of Light
Remains of the Deceased
I Believe
Strigoicia
The Lost Sheep
Overall, delivery that often misplaced rawness that makes Black Metal the pure form of extreme metal music, it’s definitely not so-called retro, it contains some of the haunt of what came before them; enduring those with weak ears to suffer so wonderful; at the same time, it won’t expand the horizons of the genre.
Baron’s Rating: 3.5/5.0
Band ink:
www.facebook.com/SacrilgiousRite
Label Links:
www.facebook.com/dunkelheitprod
www.dunkelheitprod.bandcamp.com