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AMESTIGON
Thier

W.T.C. Productions (2015)
Rating: 9/10

Austria’s Amestigon was formed back 1995, but it wasn’t until 2010 that the band released their debut album entitled Sun Of All Suns. With a further five years passing, it’s fair to say that Thier has been highly anticipated and will no doubt please those with an appetite for atmospheric black metal.

Amestigon feature Silenius (vocals; Summoning, ex-Abigor), Wolf (guitar), Lanz (guitar / bass; Dominion II, ex-Fall Time) and founding member Tharen (drums / vocals / keyboards; Dargaard, Dominion III, ex-Abigor).

If it were not for their sporadic nature, Amestigon would surely be one of the genres most respected acts; masters at spewing out dark metal scraped from some of the most hellish crevices only dreamed of by man. With dissonant ethereal vocal sneers, slower passages of melancholic wickedness and faster passages of spiky, barbaric metal, this new outing has all the hallmarks of what classic black metal should be. Forget dull dream-like pastures. Instead, revel in the black coils of this vast beast and one which is built upon deep, grinding sections of malice and steered by those vicious vocal rasps and hisses.

The album offers up four lengthy tracks, the first being ‘Demiurg’; a well-orchestrated soundscape that features classic primitive black metal haste paired with some fantastic mid-tempo nastiness, but all encased in a sort of ethereal atmosphere drenched in mysticism. The band are easily capable of booming out black waves of doom with hints of traditional metal, and above all that authentic brand of blackness we became accustomed too in the early 90s.

Each track is so jam-packed packed with ominous divisions and moody sectors that upon fragmentation we are lead into gloomy portals where leads soar majestically in the darkness, only to be drowned by foreboding instrumentation and melancholy. The creepy ‘358’ begins like an Italian horror film soundtrack, but this is soon swept up in typically black metal rushing – a coming together of pacey drums and some of the best, most primitive vocals I’ve heard and yet they are fused with deathlier bellows and arrogant narration to full effect.

As one would expect from such lengthy tracks, Amestigon refuse to bore the listener. Instead, they keep the audience guessing by serving up a galloping sub-division which is suddenly replaced by a dank air of regression then speedy pattern shift. Indeed, the final few minutes of ‘358’ are staggeringly brilliant – a mere soundtrack of aching horror and gargantuan blackness as the guitars roll and the echoes of Gothic orchestration start ringing out from unfathomable chambers.

The title track is even more orgiastic; a 20-minute lesson in black metal horror. Beginning as a slow-burning flame of darkness punctuated by equally foreboding vile vocal rants, Amestigon master the art in constructing doom-drenched black metal where the percussion rarely oozes above a nod and the guitars complement this plod with utter wickedness. I’m amazed at the suspense created with this track. In fact, it takes seven minutes before the band hint at any sort of bracing pace, but until then it’s a simmering cauldron of evil. However, once the band has reached hysteria they clank out a hideous brand of barbaric metal where the vocals take on an even more sinister turn – a frantic, possessed barking accompanied by a horrific icy backdrop of speeding guitars and drums. Meanwhile, the second half of the song is a mix of mid-tempo eeriness coupled with occasional injections of speed leading us into the depths of the final track.

The 14-minute snarling ‘Hochpolung’ takes us into the very heart of grim, arrogant old school black metal hinting at Mayhem, Darkthrone and the likes, while harbouring its own vicious spirit. The ever simmering passages of gracile despicability married with the burning embers of suspense make for such an engrossing listen that anyone who calls themselves a black metal fan should pick up the true sense of the epic about this mammoth effort.

Not many words can actually describe this monster of a record that has everything and more when it comes to delivering black metal ingredients. A surprise round every corner awaits, with pitch black patches of darkness just behind.

Neil Arnold

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