RSS Feed


HENOSIS
Apotheosis Pulsio CLVI EP

Blood Harvest (2014)
Rating: 8/10

Henosis is a fearsome trio emerging from Viña del Mar in Chile and this five-track double seven-inch EP is their debut offering. The band consists of Perpetual Nothing (vocals / guitar), H.O.E.V. (bass) and Nathan Von (drums) who beneath hoods of darkness spout out haunting black metal that sounds as if it has been recorded in the very catacombs of hell!

We open with the eerie chimes of the ghoulish ‘Void Mantra’; a two-minute expression which is nothing more than some primitive remote chant to the distant wail of a down-tuned guitar. And then we’re off full blast through the putrefying wastes of ‘The Red Key’, a truly annihilating experience amateurishly constructed of blackened bones, smoked skulls, rusty chains and blood-tinged oil.

South America is such a frightening place when it comes to its extreme metal and Chile is at the forefront for giving birth to some of the most inhospitable noise, and so now we can add this new band to the fray. With those inaudible vocal barks designed in the bubbling pits of Hades and a muffled guitar puke clearly crusted with slime extracted from the River Styx, this is one wretched release which must have sounded even more ungodly when originally released on limited cassette earlier in the year. But hey, somewhere within that vile veil of sludgy death metal there is a coherent solo which adds to the utter misery of it all as once again another belching word comes forth amidst a plume of grim smoke.

Henosis is very much stuck in the mid-80s and give every ounce of flesh and bone in their quest to stay buried deep within the underground. With its strong black metal connotations, Apotheosis Pulsio CLVI is the sort of abomination where one can hardly tell if the band are playing fast or slow, such is this thickly coated racket of blackened menace. And yet while ‘The Red Key’ sounds fast, we’re then taken into deeper realms of chaos with the uninviting din of ‘Macrocosmic Invertion’, an abysmally macabre expression of inhumanity channelled through those harsh vocal burps which give way for some variance; one moment they appear as a chesty cough-like heave, the next an oozing belch of the incomprehensible smothered by that lo-fi guitar splatter and equally dreadful percussive throes. But for the underground connoisseur this is the place to be; a murky void distant from all joy and reliant on that deathly black metal gurgling that surely no studio on earth could produce.

‘Immersed Into The Eternal Emptyness’ rises slowly from the steamy grave as a distant bellow, only hinting at what horror is to come as a guitar string is plucked to cause aural disturbance. Here, Henosis dwell in doom-laden waters, and this track is nothing more than a down-tuned, primal instrumental existing on just a backbone of suspenseful guitar moan which then leads us into the final terror. ‘Incognoscible Force Behind Of The False Light Paradigm’ begins like some raw studio jam of plundering stark drum and that rancid, lo-fi guitar misery. However, Henosis offer us this auditory nightmare in seven-minutes bringing with it a strong Venom influence; something so hard to avoid when one is attempting to evoke images of the deep tracts of hell, but coupled with occasional chugging guitar and those fiery vocal sneers this is the perfect example of how underground extreme metal should be belted out.

It’s not clever and it’s certainly not pretty, but for sheer primal rage and rust-guzzling intensity one can only admire the flickering flames of hell that Henosis has conjured. Yuk!

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share