Judeobeast Assassination

Extreme metal and the older heavy metal styles it evolved out of have had a rather rocky but fascinating relationship that isn't always as adversarial as it seems. We all know by now that both the extreme ends of thrash and the black and death that emerged from them went out of their way to remove a lot of the last elements of accessibility and rockish songwriting but throughout the storied history of these styles ideas sometimes dating back to NWOBHM or even 70's proto-metal keep finding ways to reappear. The past can't truly be killed or forgotten. Greek style black metal, Gothenburg melodeath, black-thrash - it seems there always ends up being a way to at leat try and make what to many are the most archaic ideas of metal feel fresh again.

Unsurprisingly, a certain General Sturgeon's ironclad rule makes it clear that this divide happened for a reason. A lot of the catchy, sugary, and even poppier elements of classic metal don't lend themselves well to the often more tonally rough and structurally ambiguous realm of their descendants. The blast beats, growls, and tremolo might be attempting to capture that feeling of vile immensity native to a lot of death/black/thrash but the need for easy ear candy, bouncy choruses, and sugar-sweet melodies usually conflict and contradict that, defanging and almost reminding you like an old friend there's nothing here to truly feel intimidated or threatened by.

Yeah fuck that.

Grand Belial's Key, one of the most infamous names in the US black metal scene, have a reputation I shouldn't need to go into detail about. Like Arghoslent, they combined ideological and lyrical controversies with a mixture of 80's heavy metal pulp and death/black metal technique. Also like Arghoslent, they made it clear they were pretty bad at this and fell into nearly all of the pitfalls of the last paragraph. This coincidentally was around the same time the Swedish melodeath movement was also busy making it clear their understanding of both death metal and the classic 80's styles that predated it were both borderline nonexistent but of course, they didn't have the underground cred of the former group in spite of said bands more or less fumbling and falling face first into the same mud.

To their credit, GBK have at least the makings of a semi-decent band from a first glance. The vocals are an appropriately ghoulish, charismatic growl and the production while fairly clear has enough thorniness to it to avoid becoming plasticine. Even more importantly, some of the riffing can be fairly raw and gnarled with the sort of abstracted ugliness that black metal is infamous for.

Unfortunately, these strengths or more accurately, "things they are at least acceptable at doing" by themselves wouldn't lead to a particularly high score. The various flaws by far outnumber their already meagre strengths.

There are two main problems here. The first is that the riffing quality is incredibly inconsistent and more often than not, causes both the 80's heavy/thrash/speed/etc. aspects and the black metal ones to both work not off of but against one another. The second is that these songs just go on for far too long without really building up to or developing anything beyond testing your attention span in a way that almost makes progressive metal feel like grindcore by comparison. This is in spite of the songs not even being particularly long.

For the first of these, they're held back by the problem of a lot of the riffing having this sappy, over-dramatic, and weirdly wishy-washy melodic sensibility to it. This is the problem for most of their trad metal oriented riffing in that it's just... not very good. They serve mostly to break out the more black metal oriented parts but they're pitifully undercooked and reliant on ill-fitting jaunty bounce, at times outright jolly in a cartoonish manner slightly less diabetic than the average Slaughter of the Soul imitator. They at least avoid the bite-sized pedal riff tedium but in its place are withered, welterweight almost halfway to cock rock sections that constantly ruin any of the tension and attempted e b i q u e grandeur of the black metal parts, constantly reminding you that GBK will never *really* try to back up that bark with actual bite.

Said black metal riffs aren't a whole lot better to be honest. Occasionally, they drop the unusually sad sack tonality and give you some proper black metal riffing, a sort of slower and weighter strum-heavy delivery, but at that point they fall into the classic black metal problem of a lot of the riffing feeling very flat and mostly there to follow the tempo and ambience. Normally I'd welcome a band trying to spice things up with avant-garde concepts like adding melody to the equation but unfortunately, said melodies as previously stated are often the kind of wishy washy wannabe-cinematic fare that feels like it's trying *super* hard to tug at your heartstrings but constained by their need to also be fun, friendly party metal in disguise but also grim serious art, it makes these looooooong, dragging riffs lose any songwriting usefulness they might otherwise have real fast.

Speaking of dragging, that they struggle to justify the song lengths but also how long these riffs go for. Of course, they do the whole "AHA, you thought this would be another dialed in black metal part but KAPOW!" thing where they'll throw in the jaunty cotton candy buttrock right after the more streamlined black metal ones. Aside from making both fit together poorly, the trick wears out its welcome very quickly and you soon notice they barely develop them, coasting on the "wow, obvious juxtaposition!" factor I didn't think would surprise anyone who outgrew their Opeth-is-akshuyally-the-most-genius-band-in-the-world phase. The tenuous grasp of (and nonexistent balance between) the trad and the black metal parts forces them to often use very stilted, abrupt changes between them that sometimes border on sounding like they were intended for completely different songs.

Amplifying this fumbling tenfold is the fairly flat sense of rhythm and pacing that Cazz Grant's attempts at flashiness on the kit can't fix. Even during the blasts and tempo changes the riffing rarely changes drastically enough or with sufficient forcefulness to feel as if it's for the most part trapped in a static, blurring mush. It's quite strange because the transitions between them are impressively clumsy but they never go full on all guns blazing to try and fully stand behind these ideas, stuck in this unusual grey zone between having songs that awkwardly change between conflicting ideas and songs that feel like they stay in tame, self-contained spaces. I'm not sure how exactly they did it but hey, at least they gave us a pretty good lesson in how not to write black or death metal.

I've previously ripped into Arghoslent for being little more than Gothenburg melodeath for Stormfront forumgoers and essentially, Grand Belial's Key has nearly all of the same problems. They are a few (ant sized) steps ahead mostly by virtue of not having horrendously flat production and the occasional riff I'd expect to find from someone giving black metal their first shot. Yet they manage to feel simultaneously more drawn out and even less coherent in some senses, seemingly more ambitious until you look closer and realize that they are content to reheat the same old worn out tropes most of the genre tossed into the dustbin years ago or saved for the bands that got that you have to put in far more legwork to reconcile the gap between the past and the present. Just go listen to the third Mortuary Drape album instead.

(originally posted on RYM)

My first Grand Belial's Key output was "A Witness to the Regicide" and I am still a big fan of the band pictures on the back cover. Insiders know what I mean. Due to the fact that I also liked the music, I did not lose sight of the band. Here we have "Judeobeast Assassination" and frankly speaking, I try to respect their lyrics as long as they come from the heart. But from my point of view, they do not belong to the most intelligent poetry of the scene. The music also bleeds from some wounds, for example inappropriate breaks that destroy the power of the songs. "Pimps of Gennesaret" (great title...) is one of the songs that fall victim to one of these breaks. Its direct successor shows that the US Americans can do it much better. "Fecal Parturition" (another great title...) offers an attacking riff, dense harmonies and some very fast parts. The slower sections are slightly weaker, but the flow of the number remains untouched. This is really a good non-European black metal track.

Why do I mention explicitly the fact that the band does not originate from Europe? Well, to be honest, "Judeobeast Assassination" does not spread any black metal vibrations, at least in my humble opinion. Maybe I am a stubborn Old World patriot in this context, but I am convinced that US Americans do not have black metal in their DNA. The rumbling approach of Grand Belial's Key mixes something that sounds almost like black metal with something that sounds almost like death metal. It gets even worse, a lot of sections sail off into the void. Some powerful parts, for example during the sixth and seventh track (I am tired of writing the nonsensical song titles, forgive me), make clear that the enemies of the Holy Cross are able to perform pretty strong pieces. Yet generally speaking, the songs pass by without whetting the appetite for another round. Catchy elements are missing and outstanding riffs cannot be found as well. The band does not operate in an amateurish manner and only the dissonant, noisy instrumental which derides (naturally) Christianity is completely superfluous. Nevertheless, gripping moments remain a very rare commodity.

The booklet reveals the secret that the album was recorded "inside Mary's vaginal walls" and I really begin to think that these guys have a serious problem in view of their obviously pathological hatred. Fortunately, the production cannot be blamed for causing any trouble. It's a solid, slightly dull mix, but without major flaws. Anyway, "Judeobeast Assassination" fell short of my expectations and even the pictures of the band members are a huge disappointment. The main man wears a sports shirt while sitting on a garden bench and peering into the camera. Jesus, Satan, Allah or any other dude with (hopefully) exceptional skills: help.

A signature release from one of the more widely praised American black metal bands, Judeobeast Assassination is perhaps the peak of Grand Belial Key's repertoire to date. Musically it is as unique and ignorant of genre conventions as the behaviour of the musicians themselves, and lyrically it has enough merit to give even a jaded metal listener some fresh material for consideration. It is grand in a number of senses, from the gigantic production to the vulgar poetic accompaniment to the powerful riffs themselves. Each aspect has its role, but the album may be best characterized as a violent expression of common ideas, where every note is played with the intention of enhancing the satirical message.

Simplistic aesthetic mockery, such as the inverted cross, is common yet effective; a symbol for like minded individuals to identify with. Those groups seeking a deeper level of shock take the perversion of symbols to extremes - Teach Children To Worship Satan and Fuck Me Jesus being two popular genre examples. Even taking mockery into the realm of sexuality is nothing that hasn't been done before, as in Impaled Nazarene's memorable lyric "I was homosexual partner of Jesus Christ." This type of thing has been demonstrated as effective, and can certainly be great fun. But those who take more than a cursory look at GBK and this record in particular will notice that the approach is slightly and yet significantly different. Yes, this is hyper-blasphemy taken to theatric extremes, but at the same time it demonstrates a certain level of familiarity with its target - a deeper understanding than is necessary for the previously mentioned school of black metal offensiveness, and one that makes for a far more interesting analysis. This is a key benefit of the record: unlike the rather pedestrian anti-Christian material that is common in the genre, we don't have to have a stake in the issue to appreciate the poetic content. This not a case of narrowly-focused preaching to the choir, as even those of us who might yawn at the average black metal band's attempt at offensiveness or have difficultly identifying with the genre's hatred can at the very least gain some amusement from considering this band's approach. With that in mind, we can take a closer look. Their approach operates on two main levels: the addressing of sexuality and the Jewishness of Jesus.

A major recurring theme of Judeobeast Assassination is the portrayal of Jesus as a homosexual - a concept on its own that has long been a source of controversy. Even coming from scholarly sources, such as in the Secret Gospel of Mark referred to by the Mar Saba letter:

And straightway, going in where the youth was, he stretched forth his hand and raised him, seizing his hand. But the youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beseech him that he might be with him. And going out of the tomb they came into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days Jesus told him what to do and in the evening the youth comes to him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God.

This passage with its homoerotic undertones has been the source of some controversy, and it is this particular and specific theme that is picked up and expanded upon by GBK. Rather than simply proclaiming “Jesus was gay”, this concept of sexual relations between the teacher and student alluded to above is exploited with malicious intent - the insult becomes, then, not that Jesus was gay, but that he was sexually perverse to an extreme extent, and that these acts are then portrayed as the institutionalized foundation of the Christian faith - which at one point here is described as “12 devout gays begging for feed.” Secret Mark’s encounter with the naked youth touched a nerve with many Christians, and that is what GBK aims to replicate: illicit relationships within the Christian circle that though exaggerated to the point of impossible depravity still have a foundation in a potential uncomfortable truth. The other potential inspiration here may be the heresies described by early Christian evangelists and apologists - the “holy host orgy” detailed in “Pimps Of Gennesaret” brings to mind the writings of Epiphanius against the Phibionites. In his attacks, Epiphanius accused his opponents engaging in depraved acts of group sex, where semen and menstrual blood were ingested and referred to as the body and blood of Christ. These allegations, probably imagined in an attempt to discredit theological opposition, have now come full circle as GBK levels them at the early Christians themselves. Again, the reality that similar practices were on the minds of the church fathers is what makes the mockery of Judeobeast Assassination so effective - it retains a faint echo of plausibility.

The inseparability of Judeo-Christianity
Permitted the corruption of man

GBK is often correctly characterized as anti-Judeo-Christian, not simple anti-Christian. While this may be interpreted as mere anti-Semitism finding its way into the music, the way in which this aspect of the art is integrated within the more commonly seen anti-Christian elements makes for an effective enhancement of both sides of the equation. Christianity, both historical and modern, has had an often uncomfortable association with its Jewish roots. GBK capitalize on this uneasiness in a way that may disappoint anti-Semites seeking blatant and satisfactory racism (although there remain plenty of “swine” references), but works to enhance the assault being made against Christianity. Modern Christians forget the Jewish roots of their faith, they forget that Jesus and his followers were devout Jews throughout their lives, and they prefer to think of Paul as a convert to Christianity rather than a Pharisee who never turned away from Judaism. They think of their faith as one that began with Christ, rather than one that developed slowly in the decades and centuries after him. GBK get much mileage out of the Jewishness of Jesus, characterizing those early years of Christianity as the source of modern Zionism. Though the album generally stays in the New Testament era, the attack is creatively extended to the artists’ modern enemies through the exploitation of an admittedly (by me, not them) thin connection. This overall sentiment is best exemplified by a line from “Satanicunt”, where a prominent Christian figure of worship is attacked in a way that may surprise some: “Holy Mary mother of ZOG.”

These creative associations are made to work through their specificity, and through comparatively intimate familiarity with scripture. The references are many - the opening track is itself a retelling of the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, and within it are contained allusions to Luke 8:4-8, Matthew 21:18-22, Revelation 6:8 and Matthew 3:16-17 (et al.). This sort of familiarity, while certainly not uncommon for a moderately well-read Christian, is largely absent in metal, and for good reason: most bands, it can be assumed, just don’t find it to be necessary. And for the most part it isn’t, such specific references are wholly superfluous when your goal is to offend the enemy and entertain the like-minded listener. But for the few bands that display the ambition to make their attack a little more intimate - along with our current subject, The Meads Of Asphodel come to mind - there is the potential to realize greater artistic heights and to create music with deeper impact and broader relevance. Most importantly is that in our current case the shock value and purely confrontational mockery is not sacrificed. In keeping with the blunt sonic aspect of the record, the detailed stories that are retold by GBK are liberally decorated with appropriately blunt language. Plenty of base vulgarity and obscenity is present, and works to both keep the energy level high and to hold together the longer narratives of blasphemy.

The voice which delivers these concepts is presented in a way that smoothes the overall flow and creates an organic feeling where the riffing might otherwise lead to rigidity. There is only a rough effort made to rhythmically accompany the rest of the soundscape, generally the words flow forth spontaneously and freely, dripping naturally into the crevices of the riffs. While often in extreme metal the vocals are used as a strictly percussive element, but not here: the vocalist behaves as a soloist at many points, sounding improvisational as the same lyric over the same riff is only occasionally delivered in the same way twice. Overlapping tracks are employed sparingly and effectively, and some melodramatic clean vocals appear in a mocking fashion. This allows the specific tone of the music to be better conveyed, as uniform black metal screams do not easily lend themselves to the concept of derisive imitation. See the final moments of "Fecal Parturition" for the most obvious example of this approach, as the continued repetition of "Hosanna to the Son of David" taunts the listener in a variety of satirical tones before the final departing blow of "...spoke pig" is delivered in a brief moment of silence before the metallic tirade continues with the next track.

This album represents a fairly large step forward from its predecessor, Mocking The Philanthropist. While conceptually there has been little evolution, in terms of musical structure significant changes have been made. Things have been streamlined in a totally positive sense, with Judeobeast flowing much more easily and songs being structured more logically and tightly - there is a feeling of a unified overall vision here with attention to pacing and the context of each individual track. Where the previous album was lengthy and meandering with interludes appearing regularly to break the flow of the album and an extensive tracklist that occasionally bordered on redundancy, here you can sense that a greater standard of quality control has been applied. Every moment seems part of a plan - a single interlude track offers a brief reprieve before the album's thematic pinnacle ("Lamb Of God..."), and Gelal lets loose with a guitar solo only twice: once on the opening track, and again on the final one. The closing track even includes a frenetic curtain call finale, offering a moment of self reference not often found in black metal - each musician is mentioned by name during the apocalyptic announcement of the coming of the "Doves Of War", showing us just how much fun the band had with this record. It's an interesting change of pace from the more common first-person relaying of the musician's emotional state found in metal, and brings more to mind Danzig-esque son-of-Satan fetishism (without coming so dangerously close to the realm of unwitting self-parody).

Another sign of evolution from the previous album is the found in the riffing itself. No longer relying so heavily on standard tremolo melodies, there are many more instances of heavy death metal chugging and occasionally dissonant traditional metal gallops (bringing the band closer in this respect to associated act Arghoslent). There are still plenty of blasting black metal sections with frantic guitar work, but often the songs focus on dark mid-paced power chord patterns and simple rock grooves that would not be out of place on a Mercyful Fate album. This synthesis shows itself clearly on the previously mentioned climactic track "Lamb of God Slain Will Be" - notice how the same chorus is revisited later in the song, and the dissonant tremolo slides have been replaced with a now plodding yet thematically similar riff. This attention that is paid to variations in the pace of the album is what gives such tracks their majestic narrative feel, developing a complex set of moods around a simple, even generic lyric. It's these moments of authenticity which assure the listener that this is not a band bound by convention or interested in going through the motions.

With all the boundaries being explored by the release the appeal is wide, but it's the depth of the album that makes it worthwhile. It works as a black metal release, and it has something for enthusiasts of other forms of extreme metal to enjoy as well. But more importantly, it can serve as both a relatively imaginative caricature of early Christianity and as a purely functional and visceral metal album full of riff-heavy satisfaction. Whether considered with the ideological baggage attached to it or with the themes ignored totally, with this album Grand Belial's Key have earned their stature.

Grand Belial’s Key (GBK) is a fairly popular USBM act, and in my opinion, probably one of the best. Their strong sense of melody, catchiness and the lack of the (in)famous depressive/suicidal black metal sound that most USBM bands like to utilize. This makes them easily stand out amongst the crowd of USBM groups that dawn on the black metal scene today.

Onto the album, and the lyrical themes, which are clear cut Satanism, and the anti-Christian attitude that comes with it. With the track titles (example: Satanicunt) this may seem very juvenile and very insincere, but from the first track, GBK breaks that thought. The lyrics are pure satire and in a way show sincerity with the entire band’s hatred of everything Christian, but, the lyrics are driven by the music.

The music is the highlight. GBK has everything that a black metal fan would desire in an album. Production job which you can hear everything, except the bass, drums that remain vicious throughout the album’s 45 minute playing time, riffs and solos that display an atmosphere and perhaps an undesirable trait for some, melody. Melody has always been controversial in the black metal scene, due to its use by the ‘pop’ black metal bands. Some claim it just isn’t dirty and raw enough for a genre like black metal, but GBK is one of the bands who can counter this trap. GBK have found a perfect balance, they have both the desirable ‘dirty’ sound that some may like their black metal dirty, and they have the melody for those who prefer melody. Surely, it’s much more complex than that, but, with catering to both opposites spectrum of the black metal spectrum, GBK have made a recorded likable by each sect of black metal.

So, the band has the elements down, can they act upon them? The simple answer is fuck yes they can. Each member of the band make a near perfect blend of this ‘darkened dirty melodic black metal’ with their assigned instruments, but the vocals are a different story.

The Black Lourde of Crucifixion does fairly competent vocals, which is the only flawed part of this album (and the reason it lost 15 points.) He does some very average black metal shrieks and such, and on an album where everything is standing on perfect status, a flaw that lasts the whole album can devastate its effectiveness as an album.

The guitars are pummeling, the bass is nonexistent, and there are a couple of solos, which should catch you by surprise if you don’t expect them all to much in black metal, but nothing is too showy, and everything is just set into perfection. The drumming never overtakes the guitar’s dominance over everything, and stands clearly audible in the background. GBK’s stellar production on this album clearly avoids the all too common problem of the drums just being at the forefront and ruining the guitars.

Giving this a listen will not hurt anyone; it is musically perfect black metal album, only ruined by some average vocals. At a playing time of 45 minutes, it should not bore you in any manner by being an hour long album fare, or some big commitment. Recommended for anyone who seeks some good black metal and perhaps some USBM that isn’t suicidal/depressive black metal.