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DIVINE ECSTASY
Strange Passion EP

Iron Bonehead Productions (2018)
Rating: 8.5/10

The name is a new one on me, Divine Ecstasy being a Detroit, Michigan-based cult offering up a debut mini-album that nods, winks and spits towards the evil days of Bathory, Mayhem and Bulldozer, as well as flirting with other grim waves within the black metal scene, all the while remaining a tour de force in their own right.

‘Eternally Scarred’ kicks things off as a pitch black zip through the hideous, obscuring clouds. The music feels nifty as we’re led further into the dark corners by Flesh, a peculiar chap whose vocal tone is clear yet sinister; his commands not to be trusted as he beckons with that snarl.

Suddenly I feel like I’m back in the 80s and stumbling across some one-off obscure release because of its cover, not sure if to tell the parents what I’ve spent my money on but knowing full well that when the needle drops and the sound comes out that I’m gonna be dragged in for all eternity; utterly possessed and bewitched by its peculiar, abysmal strains. Musically, the opening track is actually quite one-dimensional – a straight-laced scurrying vibe of darkness – and that’s enough so as to make those vocal slurs work.

The second track, ‘Lost In The Catacombs’, is more blustery musically, but the mesh created is still as thorny – a scurrying flurry of sneering chaos and again that spine-tingling tone. Okay, so forget Bathory and the likes now, Divine Ecstasy belong in the same spooky bracket as, say, Furze or Judas Iscariot, because their take on the now seemingly exhausted genre somehow seems fresh in its eeriness.

‘Sands Of Time’ is evidence further of such demonic quality; the riff is as pitch as oil and the drums dart and scamper in tandem with those scuttling chords. Musically it’s very much black metal, but not really cold, icy or remotely chilly. Instead, Divine Ecstasy entice you into the unknown, promising pleasures but only giving bizarre esoteric orders. And yet strangely, through the strangeness, Strange Passion on the whole is a record hard to categorise because of the feeling it gives off; the dread, the fright and the scares emitted via those vocal remarks.

‘Great Cataclysm’ is doomy, gloomy and trudging but always accessible. The vocal squawks of Flesh flicker with horror as musically the combo drifts towards classic Mayhem; those weird angles offered up by the guitar sound, reverberating in creepiness. Meanwhile, ‘Prophets Of Madness’ has a punky quality; there’s a speed and zippiness but it’s far from being a hasty blur, with everything feeling eerie and just black. And as ‘Taste The Demon Seed’ emerges with another punky vibe, I feel as if I’m hearing the future of black metal in spite of the obvious nods to the past.

Divine Ecstasy toy with rainy Gothic trends, punky values and the obvious black metal traces, but when all combined it makes for a rather delicious meal to feast on however unnerving and poisonous its presence appears to be. Flesh emerges as the new antichrist rock star, while his unapologetically primitive compatriots provide the unruly pulse by which we become entranced. Holy water can’t save you now… it’s time to be afraid.

Neil Arnold

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