OUR LIST OF 2011’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 11

This is Part 11 of our list of the most infectious extreme metal songs released this year. Each day until the list is finished, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the Introduction via this link. To see the selections that preceded this one, click the Category link on the right side of the page called MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2011.

In yesterday’s Part 10 of this list, we veered off our usual, heavily beaten path with two slow, doomy songs that were as beautiful as they were dark and featured almost entirely clean singing. Today, we’re back on path — straight down the fuckin’ middle of it. This installment of the series could be called the “rip hell” edition, because that’s what both songs do — they’ll rip the bloody hell out of your head, leaving a spurting neck stump — and a smile on what remains of your face.

DEIVOS

The 2011 Unique Leader release by this Polish band only made one of the many year-end album lists we’ve posted over the last month — the one from Johan Huldtgren (Obitus), but there would have been a second appearance if I hadn’t been too lazy to create one of my own, because it made a lasting impression. To borrow from my review of Demiurge of the Void in October:

“The music — all of it — is a jet stream of head-whipping fury. . . . [T]he pattern consists of this: Brutally fast, razor-sharp, blood-spattering riffage, blasting with the heat of an acetylene torch, segmented into massive slamming beats that deliver a physical jolt. Tempos that unpredictably stagger a step forward or a step back or just plain stomp on your neck, just to prevent you from getting too comfortable. Drums that follow a near-inhuman pace, a percussive holocaust designed to provoke a non-stop adrenaline rush. Diseased guitar solos that either moan sickeningly in the background of the aural torrent or slither forward out of the chaos, like a serpentine creature trying to escape the maelstrom. Bestial barking vocals that well up from a deep, dark place.”

The music is well-composed and expertly executed. In a year that delivered a torrent of impressive tech-death, Demiurge of the Void was a stand-out. In our review, I included a song called “Code of A Dead Deity” as an example of the album’s head-smashing explosiveness. That catchy song has stood the test of time — I still get a super charge out of hearing it. It belongs on this year-end MOST INFECTIOUS list:

“Code of A Dead Deity”

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/02-Code-Of-A-Dead-Deity.mp3|titles=Deivos – Code Of A Dead Deity]

But today’s hell-ripping doesn’t stop there. It continues with . . .

BELPHEGOR

Coincidentally, Belphegor’s latest album, Blood Magick Necromance, also made Johan Huldtgren’s year-end list, with this explanation: “A band I’d given up hope on returns and proves that even after an eight year dry spell you can have redemption.” In giving it the No. 4 spot on his list of personal favorites of 2011, Andy Synn wrote:

“Vicious, sinful, and remorselessly evil, this record sees Belphegor accenting their blast-and-bludgeon approach with more seductive subtlety and nuance. The album is still an unforgiving display of Satanic glorification, overflowing with demonic blast beats and buzz-saw riffs designed to kill and maim with impunity, but the key to its new found lethality is in its more focussed and intelligent delivery, less a berserker frenzy and more a cold and calculated form of methodical musical torture, tormenting and toying with its victims before delivering the fatal blow.”

(Andy also named the album on his list of the year’s “Great” releases.)

Blood Magick Necromance included more than one song I considered for this MOST INFECTIOUS list, but I finally settled on the opening track, “In Blood – Devour This Sanctity”. It begins with a blistering drum onslaught and a writhing, Eastern-influenced guitar melody, and the torrential force of the song just builds from there. The harrowing vocals are especially effective, and the combination of dismal melody and huge, slamming chords make this a memorable song. The martial, headbang-inducing finish is icing on the cake.

“In Blood – Devour This Sanctity”

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/01-In-Blood-Devour-This-Sanctity.mp3|titles=Belphegor – In Blood – Devour This Sanctity]