Tuesday 15 November 2011

Consecrated Flesh - Demo 2011

Self Released 2011

1.Bow Down At The Altar Throne 2.Ethnogenesis 3.Meteotsunami
4.From The Dying Earth

As the guitars slowly fade in there is a sense of impending doom starting to fill the speakers, the tension building to fever pitch before an unholy barrage of brutal and melodic Black Metal is unleashed in opener ‘Bow Down At The Altar Throne’. Guitar melodies leading the track through a Scandinavian influenced BM assault. The main and fully obvious influence to the band’s sound being melodic Swedish BM, think Vinterland, Eucharist, The Moaning, Excretion and Sacramentum and you’ll pretty much understand where CF are coming from. Everything you need from this style of music is on show, harsh and scathing screamed BM vocals, drums that mix tempos but generally remain in the mid-paced to faster bracket, blast beats firmly on show and when the pace is slowed the fast double kick drums take over. It’s an absolute beast of a track, at 8m 51 it is very lengthy but there’s a lot on offer, the guitars keeping the whole track very interesting, catchy and brutal. All well-crafted which affirms the bands skill for writing a good tune. ‘Ethnogenesis’ is another lengthy affair, clocking in at 7m 29 and again is a guitar lead song, the melodies and harmonies being at the backbone of the song and creating a really ice cold atmosphere. Acoustic guitars are introduced which add an extremely melodic interlude with the acoustic riff then being carried through into the main body of the song when the harsh guitars kick back in. Very typical of the genre but it does sound extremely original and well structured. This is definitely the bands song writing at its very best and catchiest, especially when the pace is dropped slightly, there’s a real sense of despair on show – very haunting and very captivating.

‘Meteotsunami’ sets itself aside from the three other tracks, mainly due to the song length being only 4:44. There’s also a variation in the sound with spoken and clean sung vocals introduced that ultimately didn’t work and sounded a little uncomfortable and out of place – keep the vocals hateful, it works so much better! ‘From The Dying Earth’ closes the demo and shows CF at their very best, blazing in with a storm of blast beats and and ice cold riffing, tremolo picked riffs really showing off the bands melodic edge. Clean sung vocals are again introduced but when mixed with the BM vocals, changing from one to the other then back again actually works really well. They are however used sparsely which is only right, not over-using them makes them work really well. The sense of despair really begins to build in this closing track. It really feels like all life is about to end and this is the soundtrack to end it all, the atmosphere becoming utterly compelling and addictive. It’s going to be interesting to see where the band go from here because if they can produce more of the same for a debut full length I’m sure it will be extremely well received. Brutally melodic epic BM which is extremely well played and is another highlight in the current UKBM scene and comes well recommended.
8 out of 10

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