Immortal Black Art

Immortal Black Art was my first taste of Ceremonial Castings. Randomly coming across this band, I thought this album was really awesome when it came out. It was a good mix of black metal and death metal with a lot of symphonic passages and keyboards in between. It seemed to have the best of both worlds. This was also a type of sound I wasn't too familiar with so Immortal Black Art (IBA) was definitely something worth getting into. Lord Serpent's vocals really delivered and he created such a unique howling sound that gave an extra boost of intensity throughout each track. Old Nick's keyboarding gave a ton of color to each track giving the album a bit more character. Finally, Blood Hammer's drumming laid down an awesome foundation of heaviness that no other band could come up with.

To put it bluntly, everything here was pretty badass. Check out tracks like "Propogating the Witch." It starts out with haunting riffs, howling shrieks, and ominous synths. The riffs go all over the place making the mood very chaotic and unsettling. It's both barbaric and violent. "Come Forth Damnation" is both catchy and heavy, with very impressive drumming. I don't care if any of this was programmed - this is pretty brutal stuff! It's a great product of heavy hitting melodies. There is plenty of variety in IBA as well. The title track has the same, adrenaline-rushing feel of the other tracks, but is lightened up with peaceful piano melodies in the middle. Even the instrumental, "Of Warriors who Gather," showcases the band's ability to spice things up with what sounds like a medieval, fantasy themed - epic keyboard peace. The lyrics as a whole aren't deep, but Lord Serpent's vocals make them easier to pick out and the style of singing makes it sometimes, dare I say it - sing-a-long.

IBA was incredible when I finished the entire album for the first time, but on subsequent listens, a lot of it got old real fast. I felt the production was really tiring and things just seemed more artificial after more listens. The guitars started to come off as too strong - like they had an unusually high sharpness in their tone. Is this because there wasn't a bass? The music was certainly missing that foundation. Sometimes even the keyboards seemed arbitrarily added in. The more symphonic parts seemed unfitting sometimes for the metal that it was supposed to be complementing. Overall, I think the main issue I had with this album was that the sound felt so unnatural and forced sometimes. It made the music a lot tougher to enjoy as everything seemed more tiring and dull.

For what it's worth, IBA is a great album if you want some fast-paced blackened death metal delivered in a fierce, but unique style that would boost your adrenaline. Unfortunately, this is one of those albums that you can get sick of pretty easily, so do listen to this sparingly. The sound and production can be a bit of an obstacle, but ultimately it's not a big deal breaker. The heaviness and free flow ideas help make up for that. If you want our music collection to see a bit of a curve ball, IBA might be that album for you.

When I was first given this album, I'd never heard of this group...and in a way, no one else I knew did. Come a year later, these fuckers are everywhere...within reason. Much like SOTHIS and NACHTMYSTIUM, consistent, praising word of mouth have made these Pacific Northwesterners the USBM toast of the town, and for all intents and purposes I'd prefer these goons get such a red carpet treatment over the previous two based on the ability to be, at the very least, titillating. But whether or not CEREMONIAL CASTINGS would be considered the saviors of American black metal has yet to be seen, if it will occur at all.

And if this album is any indication, they could be on the right track, albeit with serious nicks to rub out.

What helps things for the better on their behalf is their not taking the "traditional" American black metal approach. Theirs is more of the speed-laden, slightly melodic variety that showcases balls and plentifully nasty, nasty riffing from time to time. Equating the wickedness of the cover art rather well, C C unleash deluges of bitter heaviness and nightmarish harmony, where synthetic orchestration, raging guitars and bestial vocal work create a tapestry of blackish hell the likes of which so many Myspace bands wish they could evoke, only with far better musicianship and skill. Seems as though these two gorms can do more by their lonesome than with a complete and full-on band, something that probably made the whole ordeal that much easier to undertake; sometimes a complete line-up makes for serious setbacks, especially in the more extreme metal variety, where the likes of “Come Forth…Damnation” and “Human Slave Infantry” shows best.
However, for what good parts exist, “Immortal Black Art” is not without fault. The biggest sin in all of this is probably the production; the robotic, computerized-to-death recording techniques makes for a not-so-natural sound, which, as I may have stated at one time, causes more harm than good in a black metal album. The overdubbed sharpness of the guitars, the general lack of bass and the VERY obvious drum machine make for a too-perfect listen that could very well have been created by a computer, or rather cold and unfeeling rock stars, instead of REAL musicians. For what it’s worth it doesn’t possess the kind of sound a discernable listener would be able to get totally swept up into, which, in my eyes, is the bread and butter of black metal; once you lose that factor of listenability, your wares flitter by as background music that tickles the attention only so much before its artificiality makes you think these guys are trying to outproduce their grim and frostbitten peers (don’t be like that, guys…). This is shown most brightly with the likes “The Miracle of Bleeding”, “Reborn Through the Bestial Flame” and their abysmal cover of “Transilvanian Hunger”, done in that unnecessary filler way that doesn’t bring about the lo-fi evilness the song demands.

So all in all “Immortal Black Art” is a mixed bag of great ideas and bothersome diatribes. In a way I can understand why those in the media would trip over themselves praising these guys, but if you ask me they could do a better job maintaining this steady rise to underground stardom.

This having been the first Ceremonial Castings record I listened to, upon listening through again, it has brought up the same feeling that I had when I first heard it; promising, but ultimately lacking something. Whilst it does contain some absolutely fantastic elements in it, there’s still a nagging feeling that it could have been done better.

For me, the main drawing point in this album is the guitar tone. I haven’t heard anything quite like it, drifting between buzzing black metal highs and an underlying crunch-laden thrash nature. This accompanied by some brilliantly composed keyboard sections, and you’d assume you were onto a winner here. Unfortunately, those hopes are dashed by a trio of less impressive instruments, or more accurately, two unimpressive instruments and a completely lacking instrument.

The first problem for me was the drums. They sound abysmal. Not in terms of performance, as they’re almost flawlessly played, they just sound like your typical cheap computer programming drum sounds sample. The bass drums and snare are about as flat sounding as a pancake, with no actual bass sound coming out of the bass drum.

Maybe this lack of bass was intentional, to keep in line with the bands bold, and ultimately disappointing lack of a bassist. While bass guitar has never been the most prominent feature of black metal, to drop it completely, for me at least, is a big mistake. Removing the tones of a bass in what is an attempt at a symphonic album seems to me a bit odd. Like an orchestra turning up without their bass instruments, it just shouldn’t happen. It drops a whole layer of sound that could have worked so well with the above praised high-end guitars.

Finally we reach the last let-down, the vocals. Now, maybe it’s because I’m not the biggest fan of death metal style vocals, but some of the sections in this album are beyond shocking. Whilst his standard black metal ‘rasps’ are your average fare, nothing to challenge the establishment or provide anything of interest, but a solid performance none the less; and his clean vocals are passable, the low-end death metal grumblings are so poorly produced, and very amateur sounding, they detract from what could have been brilliant moments. Maybe this inability to produce low-end is what ultimately caused them to abandon bass guitar and massacre their kit.

Now the instruments have been examined, time to move onto the actual songs. The first thing I can say about this subject is that these guys sure know how to start an album. The opener ‘Come Forth Damnation’ really sets the tone with the buzzing guitar intro, and from then on, this song is highly enjoyable. Flowing from section to section, overlaid with some truly wonderful keyboard lines, this song is the perfect opener to an album. However, it’s choppy seas beyond this opener. The album switched between some gems and some less wise choices, before ending with a well thought out and relaxing ‘outro’ in the shape of ‘Post Storm Silence’.

The follow up to the well-received introduction, ‘Desecration of Grace’, is a mixed bag. It opens brilliantly, but then is dragged down with the vocals until it manages to stumble its way through this initially great riff again and again until it becomes tiresome and they switch to a clean guitar interlude. For a band that styles itself heavily on the likes of Emperor (extremely obvious in the two following albums, with some outright plagiarism) this is a disappointment. The composition is muddy at best and it really struggles to flow. ‘Immortal Black Art’, is another repetitive song, again on the verge of being brilliant but not quite making it. Much of the rest of this album follows this ‘nearly there’ sound, asides the instrumental ‘Of Warriors Who Gather’ and the above-praised, also instrumental ‘Post Storm Silence’. These really highlight the level of composition that shines through in sections of most of the other songs, but sadly never really link up to create that complete, epic singularity that albums such as Emperor’s ‘Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk’ achieved.

The biggest mistake on the album however, was the cover of Darkthrone’s ‘Transilvanian Hunger’. Not only does the song itself not gel with the intended symphonic/epic styling they so clearly aim for, but it is a genuinely average cover, adding nothing new to the song, and if anything, being an overly fast, dull cover that should quite frankly never should have left the studio.

I still would recommend at least giving this album a try, but I’d aim for their later release ‘Barbaric Is The Beast’ as it cleans up a few of the weaker song writing elements present throughout this album. Overall, this album is a solid release, but just falls short of what it could have been, and with previous brilliant symphonic black metal albums to retrospectively compare this to, the band does seem to be fighting an uphill struggle in an often average, but rarely brilliant genre.

Thanks to the review of Ceremonial Castings newest album Salem 1692, I decided to look into their back catalogue. And this is when I came upon the 2005 album Immortal Black Art, a low-fi symphonic black metal album quite similar to Salem 1692 in many respects.

The album starts off with my favourite song of the album, the fast and thrashy "Come Forth... Damnation". After that we are treated to "Desecration of Grace" which is probably my second favourite song on the album because of the lyrics that are just way too catchy:

"I am The Devil & The Devil is Me
For the only Devil in existence is Man
We are what we are if we are free
Otherwise slaves to the Holy Hand

I am The Savior & The Savior is Me
If you believe there is a Savior at all
I'll sell my soul because nothing is free
To see the celebration of Salvation's Fall"

Next comes the title track and it's sadly not the best song on the album, at least not until the later half when the weird chorus is dropped and Lord Serpent starts to mix his screams and his clean vocals to create a really great cosmic sound vocal effect. "Human Slave Infantry" is a straight up thrashy black metal song that, while good, is pretty forgettable. Then we have the first instrumental of the album, "Of Warriors who Gather". It's a synth-heavy song, filled with Old Nick's signature style of low-fi synths that just sound fucking awesome. "Reborn Through the Bestial Flame" is another great track with some cool riffs. "The Miracle of Bleeding" is a fast little song, nothing too special... unless you listen to this song with some good headphones because then you're able to hear the insanely brutal bass drum in all it's thundering glory that is reminiscent of a giant golem aimlessly stomping across the land. "Propagating the Witch" is a great song about having sex with a witch, which would have been good enough for me, but the solo (read: the climax) that starts at 2:03 is something out of this world. A neat cover of "Transilvanian Hunger" and an acoustic/synth instrumental titled "Post Storm Silence" finish off the record.

If you've heard any of the later Ceremonial Castings albums then you can expect the same style/sound/quality of the guitars and synths, but I felt that, unlike Salem 1692, there weren't as many catchy riffs though what was there was very well done. On the other hand the vocals done by Lord Serpent confuse me as to why they opted to go for the less-polished Norwegian style of vocals for the later two albums when the vocals on this album were in my opinion near perfect. Another thing I would like to mention is that too many of the songs seemed to have outros that lasted forever, something that bugged me a bit the first time listening to the album.

Overall I really enjoyed this album. While it's hard to go backwards through an artist's discography, I felt that Immortal Black Art gave us an easier album to just sit down and mindlessly listen to than the amazing concept album Salem 1692 (an album that I view as Ceremonial Castings best album ever).

Originally posted by Narian at "From the Dust Returned"
www.FromtheDustReturned.com

Washington's Ceremonial Castings have been (rather quietly) building quite a reputation for themselves in the black metal field. With entries like "Immortal Black Art", this is no surprise. Right from the opening riff of "Come Forth...Damnation", Ceremonial Castings lets you know that you're in for a great black metal record. Then, only seconds later, the drums kick in, and you become even more convinced.

The first thing that really captivated me about this album is the guitars. Lord Serpent has a fantastic style. His riffs both range from the dissonant to a driving, almost thrashy sound (which at times can even be catchy). There are several times throughout the album in which I find it very difficult not to head-bang along with the guitar (most notably at 1:17 into "Come Forth...Damnation", and :21 into "The Miracle of Bleeding"). Most of the time the guitars are very fast and urge the album along at a frantic pace. However, other times the guitars are played much slower, which is often a nice little change-up. There's a decent amount of squeals, which I personally love, to feed any squeal-hungry people out there. There's even a couple of acoustic passages (as in "Propagating the Witch", and in the albums finale “Post Storm Silence“) thrown in there for good measure. All in all Lord Serpent is no slouch on the axe; his guitar work is easily my favorite thing about "Immortal Black Art".

The second thing that really stands out is the is the synth and keyboards done by Old Nick. I find that a lot of times keyboards are used primarily to blend in with the music giving the guitar riffs a very sonic and symphonic feel. I do not find that to be a bad thing, but I do take notice when someone is stepping outside the box. Old Nick definitely steps outside of the box on “Immortal Black Art”. Very rarely do the keyboards have any direct sound correlation to the guitars. Most often, the keyboards are doing something completely different. Whether it be some creepy organ music, wonderfully performed piano, odd sound effects and samples, or some strings to help the album achieve its very layered, epic feel, Old Nick kept me interested and I never found the keyboards to be annoying or even boring. Additionally we are treated to a couple of keyboard driven instrumentals (“Of Warriors who Gather” for example) which are not only beautiful, but gives the album a story-like quality and helps to further its epic feel.

The vocals are pretty solid overall. Lord Serpent gives us some pretty high quality raw black metal vocals. They’re not super high shrieks by any means, but they’re pretty impressive nonetheless. He also throws in some overdubbed low grunts to accompany his higher pitched vocals from time to time just to keep things interesting. The drums (also performed by Lord Serpent) , while nothing amazing, were definitely up to par with rest of the music; I never found the drums to be lacking Plus, I enjoyed that it wasn’t just constant blast-beats. Further more, there is no bass to be found on this record. I don't usually like bands without bass (bands almost always sounds better with a bass), but I do think it works here. It keeps the overall sound of the album geared more towards the high end, which I kind of liked.

The albums ends with two tracks. The first being a cover of Darkthrone’s most notorious track: “Transylvanian Hunger”. While it’s not really all that far removed from the original version, Ceremonial Castings definitely do a good job of making it sound like their own style. Not an amazing cover, but they do it justice. Then finally we get to “Post Storm Silence”, a keyboard and synth heavy instrumental. Lord serpent’s acoustic guitar helps give the track's aesthetic a feel of pure tranquility. I find this ending to be perfect. Before that we are constantly bombarded (nearly track after track) with discordant guitar riffs and grandiose keyboards. It’s nice to end on a quiet and beautiful track. Not only does it make the intensity of the rest of the album stand-out even more, but it’s just nice to sometimes end on a more reserved note.