Angelwhore

We all know at least a few bands that have at some point in their career decided to make a sudden change to their sound. Gorefest wanted the ‘Pantera groove’ for Erase, Morgoth turned rock n’ roll when they were recording Feel Sorry for the Fanatic and Desaster opted for a different approach on their 2005 fifth full-length, Angelwhore. With four solid (if not great) albums in the back catalogue, they felt it’s that “try or die” moment for them. And thus they have recorded their most brutal album. But is it their best, too? Let us see…

Changes are evident even before you press the play button. No castles in the booklet, but drawings of medieval mass people burnings in sepia? Something wicked this way comes… “The Blessed Pestilence” is not as brutal as one might have supposed, looking back at opening tracks of Desaster’s first four albums. But it is damn heavy, guitars are downtuned as usual, but distorted and the production is more dense and heavier. Sataniac’s vocals, always powerful, this time are well overdone. While listening to Angelwhore without the booklet you’re going to have serious trouble understanding what he’s growling about. On “The Blessed Pestilence”, a song about the black death, his out-of-this-world screams seem to be mimicking cries of plague-stricken dying people…

Angelwhore is a generally slower album than Desaster’s usual 160 km/h (100 mph for those with preference for the imperial scale), with more focus on doomy slowdowns. Of course, there are breakneck speed moments (most notably on “Nihilistic Overture”, which also features a successful vocal cooperation between Sataniac and Martin Missy of Protector fame), but they aren’t as plentiful and serve as diversifying ornaments between rolling passages of morbid, sinister death metal. Yes, death metal, as Angelwhore seems closer to this genre than any other Desaster album. Think Entombed’s “Wolverine Blues” or Exhumed’s “Necrocracy” for the reference. Best moments? “The Blessed Pestilence” (best riff on the album plus awesome ending when Sataniac chants “Let’s start the triumph of death!!!”), “Nihilistic Overture” (for the blast beats in the second part of the song) and “Havoc” (Angelwhore insanity at its most extreme). “Conqueror’s Supremacy” with its melodic riffing and great, rhythmic chorus is also solid, albeit a bit too slow for my liking. Luckily, it’s followed by “Ghouls to Strike” which offers more speed in the thrash metal vein.

I am a bit disappointed with the rest of the album, though. “Angelwhore” is definitely subpar for a title song. Lyrics revolving around an angelic gangbang don’t help. The last two (proper) songs, “Downfall Be Thy Blade” and “Revelation Genocide” won’t rate among Desaster’s ‘best of’, either. The former’s potentially promising riffing is wasted by a dull, uninspired chorus. There’s madness all over the place, but the band seems to have forgotten where their true strengths lie. The only captivating part of the latter is the slower pre-chorus bridge, the rest is just chaos.

So how do I weigh these pros and cons? Do get me right, there are plenty of both. Let’s say you may find this album great if you’d never heard any Desaster material before and you don’t expect tight ass black/thrash riff fest. Because Angelwhore is more about…groove. Yes, groove, but not in the *cough* nu metal *cough* meaning of the word. Groove as in doom/death with slower riffing, more ‘economical’ drumming and focus on the atmosphere. Remember Edge Of Sanity’s Purgatory Afterglow? Expect this approach to sound, especially as it was done on the final, more experimental songs on EOS’s fourth album. I don’t want to say Desaster went grunge, though. You know what? Best find out for yourself. Angelwhore, a result of the band’s first collaboration with producer Patrick W. Engel (aka Angel Of Doom) is indubitably the most unique Desaster album and, depending on my current mood, I tend to either enjoy it or detest it.

Since the foundation of the band, the German black thrashers of Desaster have always known in which direction they wanted to go in. Their unswerving attitude has led to a homogeneous discography without twists and turns. Nevertheless, there exists one astonishing album which differs just a bit from their other full-lengths. Of course, I am speaking about "Angelwhore". While the remaining outputs of the group create the atmosphere of a battle, "Angelwhore" is a real massacre. Desaster rape, plunder and pillage while taking no prisoners - fortunately, only in terms of music. Explicit song titles such as "The Blessed Pestilence" or "Revelation Genocide" are not promising too much. This most violent songwriting approach matches perfectly with the ultra-brutal vocal performance of lead vocalist Sataniac who makes full use of his strengths. In accordance with his pseudonym, he really seems to be possessed by the devil. In any event, he growls and screams like Lord Satan himself, imperiously, vigorously and mercilessly. But that´s not all. Although he still does not deliver various moods, Sataniac proves that his voice is more powerful than that of his glorious predecessor Okkulto. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the outstanding performance of Sataniac crowns the here presented tracks.

As far as I know, some Desaster fans complained that "Angelwhore" did not shower them with catchy songs. Believe me, that is quite simply nonsense. Well, you have to listen to this wicked album for more than just one time. But the songs are infectious and you will listen to them again and again, voluntary or involuntary. If interpreted widely, this is just an other kind of catchiness. Apart from that, some parts are undoubtlessly very catchy in its original sense. Just test, for instance, the bruising beginning of "The Blessed Pestilence" or the fairly melodious introduction of "Conqueror´s Supremacy". Needless to say that inhumane screams of Sataniac end this unusual harmony in a reckless manner.

The cruel cover motif fits very well with the musical roughness and it is certainly no coincidence that the mandatory pictures of castle ruins were replaced by images of medieval scenes of torture. By the way, one might be of the opinion that the cover artwork marks a violation of religious feelings. Of course, nobody needs to appreciate it. But my understanding is that the painting is definitely of artistic value. Furthermore, the female being on the cover visualises the title track in an almost perfect manner. And while we are on the subject of the title track, this tune is a worthy representative of the full-length. It kicks off with a mean riff and turns to a first class neckbreaker. Intelligently designed tempo changes and a beastly chorus are the main features of the tune - of course, except Sataniac´s contribution. While being apparently in a sadistic mood, he adds inter alia some wicked laughters. The overwhelming "Nihilistic Overture" follows a fairly similar compositional approach. Once again, the guitar opens the song with a slowly creeping riff in a nasty manner. But the band increases gradually the tempo so that the tune ends with a fascinating high speed part. Honestly, this overwhelming conclusion catapults the song among the very best of their career. Generally speaking, the interaction of brute eruptions and insidious riffs characterises the entire album. As a final example, listen to the raging "Havoc" and its homicidal guitar work at 3.07. I doubt that there are better ways in order to create a malevolent atmosphere.

"Angelwhore" benefits from the clean yet powerful production which hardly offers room for optimization. It might be just an empty phrase, but the album really leaves a trace of devastation. You cannot get used to the brute force and unbelievable heaviness of this record. In addition, it has an admirable long-term effect because of its highly elaborated song structures. Finally, a bell rings at the end of the well succeeded outro, which features the medieval side of the band. Be aware, it could be you for whom the bell tolls.

I remember when I bought this album. I saw it in my local record store, and the price tag had 21€ in it. I thought: ‘’Well, this is yet another sloppy Black/Thrash metal band with horrible vocals and a sawing guitar you can only listen when you’re 666% drunk, but I’ll buy it anyway.’’ Holy shit how wrong I was! This must be one of my favourite albums (at least at the moment).

Obviously, this sounds like a mixture of Black and Thrash metal. The band possesses the rawness of Black metal and the aggression and attitude of Thrash metal, a perfect combination! There is just the right amount of blastbeats and a bit slower parts there. The riffs aren’t the basic primitive Black metal ‘’sawing’’, you can hear the Thrash influences. The sin... growling is the same old... well growling we all have heard before, but I think it fits the music just fine.

The good things on this album are the quality of the production (al though the sound can sometimes be a little harsh, at least when listening with headphones) and of course the riffs. I wouldn’t consider myself as a music- or guitar-expert-analyzer, but I think they’re good. Good is also the drumming and the power and the fastness the drummer manages to bring to the music. Tormentor really seems to know his instrument. And the awesome thing is, that I can’t find any bad songs on this album. Or maybe the last real song, ‘’Revelation Genocide’’. It just doesn’t have the same great spirit and atmosphere as the other songs have. The tötal mind-blowing songs are ‘’The Blessed Pestilence’’ and ‘’Conqueror’s Supremacy’’, both have a bloody good riff and atmosphere. They really get metalized blood running wildly trough my veins every time. And also, the final song, ‘’Mourning Path’’ is great too. It makes nice contrast with all the thrashing and blasting and destroying on this album by it’s slowness. I could easily imagine myself falling to sleep while listening to this track.

And now, the bad things. Luckily, there aren’t many there. First, the horrible screaming and shrieks of the vocalist. Why is it, that you have to spoil a great band with a total shitty singer? I mean, he has his moments when he does these low growls, but when he goes higher and starts to shriek,it’s just horrible. Or as my dad said; ‘’He sounds like a drunk fuck’’. I guess you get used to it, but it takes some time.
Second, the solos, or actually the lack of them. You have to wait for the only solo of this album for about 45 minutes,’cause it’s in the last (actual) bloody song! Obviously Infernal can play some darn good solos, so why the hell doesn’t he play them more often?

Afterall, this is still a bloody good album. Everything is in it’s place, and you can even see some boobs on the album cover! The Germans did it again. KRIEG!

I have loved the music of Koblenz, Germany's Desaster off and on since their initial full length A Touch Of Medieval Darkness was unleashed upon the metal underground in 1996. Their music has always epitomized my narrow conception of black metal (though that conception's definitely morphed and contorted along the way); Primitive music conveyed by means of unrelenting blackened thrash and vomitous vocals enforcing the fact that this band lacks any glamour or pretensions whatsoever. Unfortunately, around 2000-01 I became increasingly bored by the metal scene and the ridiculously inane insurgence of retro thrash via the likes of Nocturnal Breed and Desekrator, Nifelheim and Occult whose releases seemed to all blend together to the point where regardless of which one was spinning on the turn-table, it sounded exactly the same. I never would have thought that come 2005, nearly 10 years after having been initially blown away, that this band would return and offer more of what won me over in the first place. As much as I tend to stay distinictly within the realms of slow and droning black metal that sounds more like Godflesh, I now recall the reason I put away my punk rock records of yore to embrace something just as DIY. Desaster, who would admit countless times to be nothing more than a modern day Destruction (although strangely better than modern day Destruction), again unleash their brand of black metal on the underground. The music is raw, cold, uptempo, and absolutely hatefilled and may have to a degree reignited my faith in black metal... at least my faith in lesser known innovators like this being able to release something that is consistently not mediocre. I'm not even upset by their move to Metal Blade, knowing that they at least have the scruples to stay within the realms of what they kick ass at doing, and will say fuck all to "reinventing" their sound to garner a few more hapless fans this time around. They certainly won't be bringing any newcomers into the fold with Angelwhore, but then again I doubt that was their point.