Black Mass Gathering

If Watain are the generals of the current BM army, then Matricide are some of its most indestructible foot soldiers, crushing the enemy with wave after wave of sonic germ warfare. With a sound hovering somewhere between “Cosmic Keys…”-era Emperor and Darkthrone’s “Transylvanian Hunger”, Matricide nevertheless succeed in crafting something brilliant and unique, respectfully nodding to the past without letting it consume them. That “Black Mass Gathering” is only their first full-length is a bit surprising, given the grim confidence displayed in their songwriting and musicianship. There’s no forced posturing or half-hearted attempts at being “evil”: these guys mean every word they say, and wear both their music and their message like a second skin.
The album opens with a brief intro which sounds, appropriately enough, like the call to a black mass. Discordant church bells ring out over the subterranean beat of a funeral drum, while some unnamed thing hisses and gasps for breath. As it fades out, a muted riffing announces the start of “Reborn”, and from then on, there’s no turning back.
Drums and guitars race relentlessly below the scuzzed out vocals, all held together by a very present but never overwhelming bass line. Whenever there’s a break in the vocals, a brilliant guitar line rises to the surface, filling the void with an urgent riff. A great aspect of every song on this album is that despite the melodic drone, there are enough changes in tempo and exchange of prominence between vocals and instruments that it never becomes dull or predictable. You always feel like you’re going somewhere, and going FAST.
The song fades with a crescendo of wailing guitar, only to fade back in a moment later as “Faceless Shadow”, one of the best songs on the album, As it pounds furiously along, a keening guitar riff races above, threading it’s way in and out the vocals. About three quarters of the way through there’s a bit of a break, a static void before the drums crash in to beat it all back into shape. Then everything slows in time to let Gimbrynier let out a hellish howl before unleashing the final verse. When everything stops, the running guitar line trails hauntingly against the silence, the perfect end to a song that would make even the meekest run naked into battle.
“Crucifixion” begins with more of the desperate gasping from the intro, hissing atop the tortured screams of an anonymous victim. The lyrics beg “crucify me upon the cross of suffering / punish me for all my sins / crucify my upon the cross of your divinity / I must die in pain to find rebirth within”. Unlike some of their compatriots, Matricide’s handling of the english language surpasses mere competency: if they have limitations, they are careful not to reveal them by overstretching themselves, and they retain a clean poetic aspect without descending into excessive verbosity. This particular song serves as a declaration of willing martyrdom to the Satanist cause, the narrator offering himself up as a “blackened christ” for the cross.
With little preamble, the band follows up fast with “The Black Messiah”, another highlight driven by brilliant melody and drumming which ends way too soon. The album rounds off with “Visit Us With Fire” and “Spear of Belial”, the latter being a relentlessly grim sendoff ending with a hellish miasma of shrieks and bone-crushing sound. An eerie outro of muted drums and vocal rasps spits the listener back of hell, and sadly, the journey’s over.
The only thing keeping me from giving this amazing release the full score is that it is criminally short. Songs like “Crucifixion” and “Black Messiah” could easily have received a more epic treatment rather than the all too brief and slightly punk length of a couple minutes. That said, there’s no need to walk away for a few hours for a breather when it’s all over: these are songs you want to hear again right away, songs you want crashing into you over and over in waves of exquisitely painful onslaught. It’s albums like this that make me feel that while the early days of black metal were indeed brilliant and ground-breaking, the golden age is happening right now.