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ARVAS
Black Satanic Mysticism

ATMF (2015)
Rating: 8/10

Lock up your daughters, bolt the windows, bar the doors: Satan is coming over the horizon and Arvas is his unholy army providing the soundtrack.

Arvas is a despicable brood from Norway who formed back in 1992, although they existed back then as Örth. For me, any miserable force which was born back during the early 90s black metal scene must surely be an abomination to be frightened of, and so with that we step with great trepidation into the bowels of Black Satanic Mysticism – the third full-length racket from this grim quintet.

I guess the album title pretty much gives it all away, so those expecting a joyous ride into AOR melodies need reach for the crucifix and go and hide somewhere. What we get here are 12 songs, the result of a black mass congregation comprised of vocalist ColdBound, multi-instrumentalist V-Rex, rhythm guitarist Stürm, bassist and newest member Kvalvaag, and drummer Snuff X. And so, we enter the door to the soundtrack of a haunting creek and step into this haunted house of diabolism.

A brief eerie ‘Intro’ sets us up for the cacophony that is ‘Flames Of Black’ which, as expected, is a hideous clank of rattling tin-pot drums, hostile vocal grimaces and churning guitar clangs and bangs which will have the wallpaper curling and the cat bolting with fear. This is nasty, vicious hammering black metal from the depths of Hell and which is more than happy to regress back to the initial Scandinavian séances of the early 90s.

Clearly Arvas has its dark heart rooted in all that has gone before, which is why they are genuine masters of the black metal movements rather than mere mimics, and so we get that recognisable primitive formula consisting of horrifying yet catchy speed, demonic growls and yaps from over yonder and in general a sorry mess of silted noise that will coat your ears in black bubbling slime. It’s fast, furious and above all toxic to the body and while you always know what’s coming next, you can’t help but grab Satan by the horns and go along for the ride.

‘Redemption Black’ hints at more decipherable melody; the sound comes across as rather thin and scathing as the punk drum clanks and plops as if Snuff X has set up his kit in the woods and still expects us to hear him! Vocally, it’s all about that nefarious, derisive charm; ColdBound is simply a commander of chaos in a pitch black garage that in the past sat over the same gates of Hell which spawned Sweden’s Bathory.

Credit where credit’s due though, Arvas aren’t merely out to fill the ears with grit and there are some killer melancholic melodies on ‘Beholder Of Demons’. But the horrors are prevalent throughout, the band intent on making infected spits from the darkest of underground lairs. Eerie wisdom is conjured with the creeping ‘Follow The Raven’, which shows the combo’s menacing prowess as they lumber like oil-coated orcs across the landscape and accompanied by that dismal plod of percussion.

The epic ‘Starlight Eclipse’ comes hissing and fizzing from the snows and leaves a trail of black in its wake, ColdBound’s vocals as wretched as can be as the drums make a lo-fi hissing racket and are duly aided by that Nordic guitar zip. ‘Summoning’ provides fuzz wrenched straight from Hellhammer and ‘Call Of The Abyss’ provides equally melodic malevolence, but it’s proof that while black metal is often mocked for its lack of progression, Black Satanic Mysticism exhibits that there’s still life in this old dog of a genre yet.

While we can never teach a ragged, war-torn hellhound new tricks, we can still jump on its matted back and regress to a time when black metal was a musical force to be feared. Arvas has once again churned out a black, writhing mess of a record that fuses stark melody with aggression and that’s exactly what Lucifer would have wanted.

Neil Arnold

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