Ever since Portal emerged from Australia, the land that God forgot, many other bands have clawed their way out of the forbidden depths and unspeakable dimensions playing what I have called “dark atmospheric death metal”. From Mitochondrion to Antediluvian, a legion of bands have opened their jagged maws to corrupt the world with their nightmarish aural venom. Thus brings us to Ævangelist. It was formed by Ascaris, the former bassist of Velnias, and Matron Thorn, the dark and miserable man behind the entity of soul-crushing despair known as Benighted In Sodom. Together they have created what has to be one of the most evil albums to ever exist.
The first song begins with what I assume is a torture session from some movie I dare not seek. Needless to say, it sets the tone for the entire album. Listening to this album is torture. Monstrous, inhuman torture.
The bass growls and grumbles like a putrid, disgusting slime beast, each pluck of the string consuming the entirety of the low-end with its vile pseudopods and creating a nauseating feeling in the pit of your stomach. I've always known Matron Thorn was great with the drums, but I had no idea he was this skilled. Each pound of the snare sounds like the snapping of bone, the double bass sounds like a swarm of maggots squirming inside a wretched pit. Obviously, they drill and blast with unmatched violence, make sure to slow things down when they want to prolong the torture, and throw in some fills for good measure, but there are times when they take on a more martial (“Pendulum”) or industrial (“Hierophant Disposal Facility”) form. Simply wailing on the victim gets boring, doesn't it? Sometimes, it's more fun to electrocute them or slowly pull out their fingernails.
The guitars are the main force behind the band's grotesque conjurations. Portal is the most obvious influence, with their dark distortion, tremolo riffing, and disjointed structures, but I also hear a few riffs that remind me of Abyssal, mainly in the more rhythmic parts. The vocals consist of both a deep growl and a strangled rasp. The growls once again remind me of Abyssal, sounding as though he crawled out some forsaken chasm where humans dare not tread. The rasps sound like the sadistic proclamations of the lords of pestilence, denying you any shred of mercy or dignity.
If you're familiar with Benighted In Sodom, then you'll know that Matron Thorn takes the time to give his music great atmosphere. He really outdid himself here. Ghostly hymns are woven into every inch of the album, making the already terrifying experience even more mind-scarring. Two songs in particular filled me with the most indelible terror. The first was “Hierophant Disposal Facility”. Unlike the other songs, it has a much more industrial structure, but the cold, sterile musicianship makes it that much more horrific. It sounds like the pounding of pistons and the grinding of gears inside an infernal torture device, a nefarious contraption that is guaranteed to break the victim one hundred percent of the time. The other song is called “Crematorium Angelicum”. Clean guitars are at the forefront, but instead of offering you a light at the end of the tunnel, it only cements your despair. Overall, the songwriting here is more similar to depressive black metal, quite fitting for the last song on the album.
Listening to this album was physically and mentally exhausting. It feels like I've been put through horrors too atrocious to describe, and my body has been reduced to a battered, broken mess. That's exactly what the band intended all along. They wanted their music to ravage you, to violate you, to crush your will into dust and annihilate your mind. They succeeded. I don't believe in the apocalypse, but if it were to occur, this would be the soundtrack. This is easily the most amazing album Matron Thorn has ever made. It's obvious he put his black heart and withered soul into this. You owe it to yourself to get this album. It's an hour long, but torture is long too.
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