In Memoriam by Superior Rage caught me off guard. Not because of its quality — because this EP is genuinely fucking strong — but because I was convinced someone at Wormholedeath Records was having a laugh at my expense. The accompanying blurb tagged this as Symphonic/Atmospheric Black Metal, and after years of dealing with wildly inaccurate genre labels, I went in sceptical but open-minded.
1By the end of opener Indecent Condition, that scepticism had hardened into certainty: this was straight-up Black Metal. Cold, aggressive, serrated around the edges. Yes, there are keys woven into the fabric, but they sit beneath the riffs rather than floating above them. They enhance the violence rather than soften it. Nothing about this track whispers “atmospheric” in the way the term is usually abused. It’s raw, direct, and hostile.
Track two, Asmodeus Bacchic, only reinforced that impression — at least at first. The riffs bite harder, the vocals scrape deeper, and the rhythm section drives forward with intent rather than flourish. And then it happens. The song drops into a mid-section that feels like the floor giving way beneath you. The guitars pull back, the keys emerge not as decoration but as presence, and suddenly the atmosphere isn’t an accessory — it’s the weapon. Cold, eerie, unsettling in a way that lingers long after the moment passes.
That’s when In Memoriam reveals its true shape. Superior Rage aren’t a Symphonic/Atmospheric Black Metal band in the lazy, wallpaper sense of the genre. They use i sparingly, surgically, and only when it serves the song. When it arrives, it hits harder because it hasn’t been diluted by constant overuse. The contrast between aggression and space becomes the EP’s defining strength.
Across the remaining tracks, this push and pull continues. Riffs remain rooted in traditional Black Metal structure, but the band clearly understands pacing. They allow sections to linger just long enough to make the next assault feel more devastating. The keys never dominate, never wander into symphonic excess — they haunt from the edges, creeping in and out like a presence you can feel but can’t quite see.
The guitars cut, the drums punch, and the vocals sit perfectly in the mix — raw, throat shredding, and convincing. Nothing here feels overthought or overproduced. This is a band focused on impact, not ornamentation.
What impresses most is how confident this EP feels. Five tracks, no indulgence. Superior Rage know exactly what they’re doing and, more importantly, what they’re not doing. They don’t drown the listener in endless ambience, nor do they stick rigidly to blast-beat brutality. They move between the two with intent, making every shift count.
This is Black Metal that knows when to strike and when to rest, when to bludgeon and when to unsettle. It doesn’t announce itself with fog machines and reverb-soaked clichés — it earns its atmosphere the hard way.
CHOICE CUT: Soleright
BLACK METAL ARCHIVES VERDICT: A sharp, disciplined EP that weaponises atmosphere instead of hiding behind it. Superior Rage deliver pure Black Metal with moments of genuine dread, proving restraint can be just as devastating as excess.
PRESS SOURCE: Wormholedeath Records
