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ARTANOR
In Servitude Of Darkness

Gutter Prince Cabal (2023)
Rating: 8/10

Australia, home to burning sun, venomous snakes, killer spiders, bone-munching sharks and a chap named Menelyagor who, since 2006, has been the sole brainchild behind Artanor. This is a New South Wales black metal project that is as far removed from sun-bleached beaches as it gets.

Dismal, rainy, cold and grim, this debut full-length outing somehow refreshes the soul like a shower within a cold waterfall on a blazing summer’s day, in spite of its primitive nature. And yet there is grandiosity about the handful of songs that have been composed; always bleak yet as dense as a humid rainfall.

Norwegian second wave black metal this most certainly isn’t but one cannot help but revel in the murky pools formed by the cascading layers of drizzle. This is a record dripping in its own gloom; experience a track like ‘Despondent Echoes Of Misery’ and become one with the glistening moss and dew-damp pastures which have become caressed by swirls of chilly mist. Vocally it’s nothing out of the ordinary, consisting of throaty rasps that at times drag like the tumult caused by hissing caverns.

‘From The Roaring Fire’ is Artanor at its most grim and wicked; pacey yet again an icy wall of speed and rawness. It’s impossible to not recognise the epic scale of each song, none of which are shorter than six minutes, with the longest – ‘Despondent Echoes Of Misery’ – running for almost ten. This is rewarding black metal that feels and sounds organic yet rich in its details and quite comfortable to drag its legs through the sodden mire as well as gallop like some shape-shifting kelpie. There’s not a bad song here, and that’s because of the variety of tempos offered which come to fruition immediately with opener ‘Consumed By Time’.

The black metal genre rarely excites me anymore but Artanor has certainly delivered a strong debut album from one of the least likely of locations to produce such a gushing.

Neil Arnold

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