Rituals of Anathematic East by Ash Magick is Black Metal, in the purist sense of the word.
This – the third album from the duo of Necrosanctus and Graveyard Slut – is a throw back to when you first started listening to the genre and your brain had to re-adjust its way of thinking, rewire those circuts that had been trained to hear things in a certain way, and to open up your mind to a visceral onslaught that, at first, threatened to overwhelm you but eventually, when the fog started to clear, opened up a whole new universe for you to go play around in.
It is raw, it is lo-fi in a hi-fi kind of way, and it is pretty good shit. But, I promise you this, it makes you work hard to get there.
Quite frankly, Rituals of Anathematic East isn’t the kind of record that you play to someone whose only just discovered Black Metal as it would probably make their heads explode in a scene reminiscent of Scanners.
Fortunately for me, I’ve been a fan of the Black Metal genre long enough that it only took a few moments for my brain to get a grasp on what it was listening to, but even then, as I said, it still took me a few moments to get to grips with it.
This is because Ash Magick make a sound that can only be described as apocalyptic.
Seriously, it is a fucking biblical wall of noide that just beats the shit out of you, relentlessly, and doesn’t let up.
I imagjne that this is what it would feel like spending the last moments of your life being trapped inside and atomic bomb as it plummets towards its target while a rabid gorilla mauls the crap out of you.
Easy listening this ain’t.
Yet, inside this almost impenetrable wall or violent, swirling music and vocals dragged from the bowels of Satan’s… er… bowels, is a record that both Necrosanctus and Graveyard Slut can be very proud of.
This is the definition of Extreme Metal. It challenges you, the listener, to either put in the time and effort, to suffer the initial barrage of ear shredding sound, and peel away the layers of what Rituals of Anathematic East has to offer or too fuck off.
It isn’t meant to be accessible to everyone. It is supposed to make you fucking work for it. And if you do, you’ll be reward with a pretty damn good Black Metal album.
Rituals of Anathematic East is available now.
CHOICE CUT: Silent Ruin, None Evade
RATING: 3.5 OUT OF 5
RATING SYSTEM:
- 0: Fucking Shit
- 1: Shit
- 2: Not Bad Shit
- 3: Pretty Good Shit
- 4: Amazing Fucking Shit
- 5: The Best Shit You Will Ever Hear
PRESS SOURCE: Cátia C./Against PR.
