Devotion to Unholy Creed

Devotion to Unholy Creed seems like a pretty well regarded album in general, and just about every I know who's heard it claims it to be one of the best traditional black metal works of the 21st century, with an unflinching old school attitude that pays tribute to the progenitors of the medium (Hellhammer, Darkthrone, Bathory, Mayhem, the list goes on). After being only mildly impressed with the Burial Hordes debut, and seeking something new and exciting from the Hellenic soils, I was expecting to have my ears bloodied and brains knocked out, yet I'm disappointed to say that it's honestly not that much better than War, Revenge & Total Annihilation. The production is quite incendiary, I'll grant it, and there are a few highly inspired moments of magnificence, but this is one of those albums where I actually found the creepy interludes and distractions to be more interesting than the music, which features a lot of the samey, familiar riffing we've heard through countless cycles already.

I do quite like the wheelbarrow guitar tone, mind you, and the variation that the Greeks exhibit from track to track, but once I dissect the riffs they all feel a bit warm, fuzzy and derivative, with very few standouts, like the eerie tranquility of the "Splendid Destruction" intro or the bristling, thick melodies in the depths of "Hellborn". With the exception of a few lengthier bits ("Stench of Immortal Doom" and "God's Cutthroat"), they keep most of the tracks on the shorter length, so there's not really any chance they'll wear out their welcome or incorporate spare, needless sequences to pad the length. Where Burial Hordes really excels is in how they've set up the progression of the album, and the horrifying ligaments between them, like the end of the title track: distorted swells of opera with sounds of freaky torment and crying; or the baleful howls that bridge "God's Cutthroat" and "Abysmal Goatfeast", rolling right into the blocky, mid-paced Hellhammer/Darkthrone riffs. A few more instances of this infernal atmosphere would not have hurt the album.

Otherwise, it's all pretty average fare, just on the plus side. I'm reminded of fellow Hellenic blackhearts Ravencult, whose Temples of Torment followed a similar approach: guitars out front where they belong, solid if ultimately unmemorable riffing structure, and a forceful atmosphere dealt largely through the burgeoning rhythms themselves. Burial Hordes use a grimier guitar tone, though, and the notation is not quite so sadistic and penetrating. At any rate, I can see the appeal to this sort of album, it certainly is a little bit more exciting and versatile than many other recordings in its niche, and I enjoyed it somewhat more than the debut, if not by a wide margin. It's successful as far as offering its influences an option to time travel into the present, but doesn't produce any songs I'm going to want to hear months or even weeks later.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Name a fool that doesn't like Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, Mayhem, Sodom, or old-school black/thrash metal worship? Spoiler alert: you fucking can't. Burial Hordes emerged from Greece with said-banner held above their war-scorned heads, proudly boasting an enraged evolution over blackened metal's prototypical stage, yet redefined to modernity without turning into a self-charade or embarrassment. "Devotion to Unholy Creed," the band's second album, is a monolithic collection of black metal at its most primitive stage, losing all consciousness and becoming a ravenous, bloodthirsty animal hell-bent on unrelenting violence. Could you, as a metal fan, ask for anything better than true-to-the-bone thrashing in tribute to Hellhammer or Sodom? The answer is no, no you can't.

"Devotion to Unholy Creed" is an energetic slab of riff-orientated black metal that frankly slays no matter how you see it. The band showcases a mighty exploration of old-school black metal riffs that sound stripped straight out of a Bathory or Hellhammer release, layered in heavy tremolo themes and explosive might. Burial Hordes, however, perform a number of tasks to make sure their vicious guitar attack doesn't rot the listener's interest when exploring crushing mid-paced patterns or the group's booming speed. Plus, the riffs sound distinct and provide an album based on not sounding the same; instead, Burial Hordes makes their songs unique and climatically great all at once. The metallic underground was gleefully abuzz when Burial Hordes offered this slab of bloody meat to its followers during the record's release, prompting a foundation based on riff after riff of blackened madness, and for good reason.

It's totally clear the band is heavily influenced by hardcore punk acts based on their song structures featuring raw, dirty formulas and no need to write bombastic tracks, hence the release's immediate need to cannibalize. Overall though, the variety they provide is certainly rare in this retro foundation, often shown by the band's wonderful ability to keep their material interesting with obscure drum fills, constant musical transformations, and generally making sure your corpse will get flayed. Burial Hordes makes everything they do sound like napalm raining from the sky while all the sadistic, demented freaks of planet Earth gather around and happily open their mouths to ingest the burning substance. Nothing sounds more corrosive and poisonous than "Devotion to Unholy Creed," seriously.

Some might say "Devotion to Unholy Creed" could be "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" jacked up on adrenaline, or perhaps a unique collection of sleazy black metal refusing to sober up and put a shirt on. Burial Hordes, whatever the label, have inseminated a ration of pure destruction and doom that totally slays in every way. Those of you questing for bombastic black metal layered in symphonic keyboards and other dazzling efforts will most likely find nothing of value here, but I believe that is the point. Burial Hordes thrive on balancing chunky riffs and nihilistic atmospheres through their own mountain of wonderful annihilation, and thus, have no need to execute larger-than-Thor productions. If an asskicking is what you want, "Devotion to Unholy Creed" will gladly do the trick.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

I certainly have a boner for all things ambient and spacey within the black metal realm but when you get down to it the thing that BM really excels at is that sort of stuff where you can still hear the Sodom and Hellhammer influence. Burial Hordes is pure thrashing joy, make no mistake- and it's wonderful to hear.

Things get off to a surprisingly wonky start with the opening riff being far too happy, but it's not long before Burial Hordes get on with the riffs and let you know well enough what's in store for the next 35 or so minutes. Like many a great band, it's a simple enough formula but it's a great formula and it's done to perfection, so what more needs to be asked of it?

Burial Hordes traffic in a very thrashy, riff-heavy and really energetic sort of black metal- take away a few of the blasts that pop up from time to time and you could almost mistake this for some long lost thrash band. D-beats come and go- the drums are constantly changing between double time, half time etc- indeed, the drum performance is fantastic and makes this whole record far more dynamic and interesting, all the while guitar riffs mutate and vocals howl and shriek over the top . The word 'dynamic' comes to mind; while everything is fairly loud and there isn't much in the way of piantissimo sort figures here, songs change, guitars fly over the fretboard and things remain very interesting- proved very much by the the last song; a fantastic mid paced crusher with some very effective and very crushing guitars.

Yeah, I think it's the relative complexity that does it for me. Darkthrone never really clicked with me the way this has, and perhaps said complexity is why. The album itself is hardly chock full of layers or symphonic pretentions, but the riffs change fairly often, the drums are constantly shifting and changing, and the slow Hellhammer-worship bits sound fantastic when they come in. Dark Angel this ain't, but nonetheless there's still plenty of riffs and even the occaisonal more stretched out, almost ritualistic bit (the outro of "God's Cutthroat", for example) to keep you interested. Somewhat complex, despite the obvious Darkthrone influence. It seems that Burial Horde have a relatively short attention span, which is great news for the listener. It's just consistently headbangable and never gets boring- surely a most praiseworthy thing.

Those looking for a foresty atmosphere, a Dimmu Borgir rip off or what have you will probably not like this record a great deal. Everyone else will likely enjoy the hell out of this, though; terrifically catchy while still heavy, uncomprising, dark and raw. Fans of Bathory, Darkthrone and Hellhammer (and, I think, old school death metal and thrash) will find a lot to enjoy here, I'm sure,

Few bands can match the twisted manifestos of unbridled sonic chaos that were Beherit’s “Drawing Down The Moon”, Darkthrone’s “Under A Funeral Moon” or Gorgoroth’s “Pentagram”, but Burial Hordes seem completely content to try and basically succeed. All of the right elements from half-guttural/half-sepulchral barks and ravings, Hellhammer inspired thrash riffing, to fuzzy production practices and a few atmospheric gimmicks are fixed firmly in place. But most of all, a very fresh and untamed approach to songwriting more in tune with the non-minimalist nature of Darkthrone’s “A Blaze In The Northern Sky” is presented that keeps the listener guessing.

“Devotion To Unholy Creed” is a pure worship fest of the rawest and meanest of black metal’s forefathers, reaffirming engrained traditions and also expanding on them a bit. Production practices are definitely set in that olden style of dark spirits in the frost painted forests of the north heard in early Satyricon, but a few twists in the mode of Emperor come into play, most notably a sampled choral section at the end of the album’s title song, augmented further with wailing cries of despair by a feminine voice, reverberating in what sounds like a smooth walled holding cell. There’s also a chilling operatic bass-baritone solo at the end of “God’s Cutthroat” that slowly ascends a chromatic scale, likening itself to a goat worshipping pagan slowly raising a knife in anticipation of a human sacrifice before launching into a “Total Death” sounding Celtic Frost festival for the vile in “Abysmal Goatfeast”.

Although the character of this album is a little closer to early Satyricon and Darkthrone, the musical approach is not quite as barebones and minimalist as both bands tended to be during the 1990s. This is particularly noticeable on songs such as “Stench Of Immortal Doom” and “God’s Cutthroat” where more than the expected 3 or 4 riffs are employed and tempo and beat changes are more frequent. The former song actually has a free flowing, through-composed quality to it; especially during the quiet section in the middle where a series seemingly improvised notes create something along the lines of a dissonant atonal classical guitar solo, though on a clean electric.

This is definitely one of the better and also one of the more interesting black metal releases to come out so far this year, and worth your time if you like it dark, raw, and creepy. It’s definitely up to par with a lot of Darkthrone’s Moonfog era releases and even surpasses a few of them. Barring perhaps another release by said band this year, this is the album to get if you want something that hearkens back to the genre’s glory days in the early to mid 1990s.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on May 6, 2009.

Ahh, the new blasphemy, entitled "Devotion to unholy creed", of Burial Hordes will finally be out soon. Well, I’m not really sure how soon, but certainly not soon enough. It was recorded well over six months ago, and there’s no excuse for not releasing this new onslaught of Satanic worship as soon as possible. I was overly ecstatic after Burial Hordes’ debut album, and when I received the three-track preview-promo for this one I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the final product. I still haven’t got the final product, but at least I’ve got the entire recording and artwork.

Take the most sinister material ever created by Mayhem, add to that the particular chaotic brutality of Antaeus and you’ve got a fairly decent idea of what to expect here. These Greeks will not let you down, not even for a second. Just the opening riff to "Praise the bloodcode of hatred" gives me goosebumps. And when it continues on into an inferno of blasting drums and screeching guitars you’ve got no choice but to surrender. And the voice of Cthonos is a matter better dealt with on its own. Some harsh-as-hell screaming coming at you in three different ways all at once, it seems.

Incredibly powerful material here, honed and developed further from the previous album. And the use of some samples (like the end of the titletrack), or the weird ritualistic voice going at it for a minute in "God’s cutthroat" adds a very stark atmosphere to the already overwhelmingly dark aura established simply by the quality of the music. And then they have the punkish touch to "Infernal necromancers", adding yet another spin on the sound. Burial Hordes have managed to tame chaos, as it’s chaotic-as-hell, but completely under control. Masterful!

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net