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DEUS IGNOTUS
Procession Of An Old Religion EP

Forever Plagued (2014)
Rating: 8/10

Have you ever had that feeling where you listen to a black metal album, and just feel so unfulfilled? It could be the distinct lack of weight, or the fact it remains bereft of attitude and aggression. Well, if you want truly bludgeoning black metal then look no further than Deus Ignotus, a Greek duo consisting of vocalist / guitarist / bassist Reshep and drummer Xolferoth.

It’s a rare thing to find a black metal record so vicious, but yet harbouring a dismal, guttural weight about it which enables it to drift into deathlier corners. Procession Of An Old Religion comes two years after the explosive 2012 Chrismation debut, which had a menacing thrashing quality about it with those rapid guitars and hell for leather drums.

I just love the bellowing vocals from this band, something which separate them from the usual regressive rants and squawks we’ve become accustomed to with so much black metal. It’s also worth noting the thick guitar sound too, which means that the tracks race by yet choke the listener as they billow plumes of black smoke. There are hidden hints of melody, but for the most part this battering ram of an EP sticks to slaughtering the innocents in its aggressive manner.

Procession Of An Old Religion boasts five tracks. Once the two-minute introduction is out of the way, it’s a case of all guns blazing as the duo pummel with their relentless brand of extreme metal, which is all too rusty to chug and far too arrogant to care. To describe Deus Ignotus as brutal black metal is spot on as the tracks come thick and fast, but it’s not mere fog around the ears – far from it. The guys launch into the bewitching madness of ‘Seven Tongue Encapturement’ and the cruel savagery of ‘Putrid Empire’, and never once does it stop for black breath.

This isn’t the usual scathing array of glacial grey black metal noise, but a barrage of weightier vocal coughs and crushing guitars which snag the listener like a grim forest of barbed wire. I can see why Black Witchery and Archgoat are mentioned in the press release because this has the same foul, belligerent air about it as it mixes influence from both of those bands, the result being an unholy assault that boasts of its anti-Christian worth in the likes of ‘Blood Of The Apostles’ and the hate-filled devastation that is ‘Dogmathiest’.

Somehow old school in its approach, the sound of Deus Ignotus is one that also hints at that stuffy vileness spewed by Blasphemy all those years ago in 1990, but with added speed and better production, allowing the instruments to writhe as if they were a pit of hungry snakes.

Neil Arnold

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